All too often we only set aside one time per year to really, truly give thanks for all we have. Even those who feel they don’t have a lot have one thing we should all be thankful for; the gift of life. Beauty is all around us and if we can capture that sense of continued awe when we stop, take a breath, and appreciate all of the things we enjoy but take for granted, the world instantly looks like a better place.

Gratitude and appreciation is truly the conduit to happiness, a sense of purpose, and a fuller life. I’ve been meaning to start a gratitude journal now, and the idea struck me that it would be even more powerful to share it and inspire others to do the same. My aim is to find one thing to be grateful for each day which will force me to dig deeper to see tiny details that make our lives great but go overlooked.

Without further ado:

#ThankfulThursday – 6/18 – 6/24/2015

Today I’m thankful for…

6/18/2015 – Good Conversation.

Nothing seems to soothe the soul like a great conversation where you really connect and talk about something that feels like it truly matters.

6/19/2015 – Kindred Spirits.

There are those people that we never had to try to get along with – we immediately understood them and they understood us. Our kindred spirits make great partners in crime.

6/20/2015 – Data.

The word “data” almost immediately puts 99% of us straight to sleep, but fortunately for the rest of us the 1% that truly love data are changing the world. It’s amazing the macroscopic and microscopic things we can learn about because of our ability to store, organize, access, and interpret enormous amounts of data. Some of the insights data will soon give us will fundamentally change the world and the human race as we know it – and that’s truly amazing.

6/21/2015 – Authentication.

Our digital identities are and oft-discussed topic as our digital lives become more and more pervasive. What’s really fascinating about our digital selves is our ability to actually have some sort of weird, pseudo-physical presence. We are able to recognized digitally and (usually) protected from impersonators. We take basic account creation (the old username & password) for granted, but there’s so much ingenious technology that makes it all possible – and many great people make it all work and make it better every day.

6/22/2015 – Robotics.

When we think of “robots” most will immediately think of one of their favorite fiction / sci-fi robot characters. I’m particularly fascinated by the robots that greatly impact our lives today and how rapidly robots will become big parts of our lives in the near future. Sturdy, reliable, and affordable cars are largely the product of robots removing the slow, unsteady hands of people from the process of building a car. That Amazon Prime package you got today after ordering it yesterday – you guessed it, was largely picked, packed, and sorted (several times) by robots.

Then there’s this fascinating new type of robot, called “drones” and which I prefer to call “UAVs” because drone has become a dirty media-hyped buzzword. Most drones, even though piloted by people, have wonderful robot guts and machine sensing to make it all happen. Tons of technology will be developed for drones (computer vision, machine learning, inertial sensing, spatial awareness) that will come to autonomous cars and eventually the humanoid robot of sci-fi lore.

Regardless of our feelings about the robot revolution, a few things are obvious: robots are making our lives better in more ways than we realize, they will require that we use an extreme level of responsibility when developing them, and they are the key to any sort of Utopian economy we may feel we strive for.

6/23/2015 – Culinary Arts.

Food is something we need, desire, and love as a core requirement of our survival. It’s no surprise then that we have gotten so creative with our food over the millennia. I’ve slowly but steadily grown to appreciate good food and the culinary skills behind creative and amazing recipes. There’s nothing quite like that moment where a real artisan has taken spices and flavors from all over the world and labor-intensive techniques to prepare it to make an amazing culinary creation that I can’t help but eat way too fast.

6/24/2015 – Surprises.

Some people aren’t fond of surprises. I’m not one of those people – I love surprises. I think variety and spontaneity are the spice of life – and a pleasant surprise is like a wonderful spontaneous moment on steroids that catches you completely off guard.

Your turn

I’m always looking for more inspiration, so tell me, what’s one thing you’re grateful for from the past week? I’ll share a few submissions during next week’s post and intend to keep that going all year long. While I love #ThrowbackThursday, I’d love to see #ThankfulThursday take off too.

The more we can say thanks, the better off we’ll be. Especially because we don’t know if we’ll be able to say “thanks” to those we care about tomorrow or to those who’ve touched us that we’ll never cross paths with again – why wait?