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 – 7/30 – 8/5/2015

Today I’m thankful for…

7/30/2015 – Airshows.

I love airplanes. If you know me, that much is obvious (and you’ve probably taken the opportunity to tease me about it at some point). It’s still pretty amazing that metal machines can fly, especially in the dramatic fashion that they are capable of. Airshows capture that sense of amazement that is the blend of brute force, elegant engineering, and graceful piloting.

I especially love the impressive power and speed of fighter jets – they send a chill down my spine every time.

7/31/2015 – JPEG.

The web is becoming increasingly visual, much to many people’s delight – and underneath all of that making it possible and economical are compression technologies like JPEG. JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group – and they set a standard for compressing the file size of images.

Compression is extremely important to preserve bandwidth, especially when images are now the dominant part of our internet experiences. They utilize a number of clever mechanisms to reduce the file size of images with varying degrees of quality loss – but mostly they are able to cut image sizes down massively with minimal loss of quality.

8/1/2015 – Fresh Bread.

The smell, the light, fluffy texture, and (of course) the taste – there are few things that are quite as amazing.

8/2/2015 – Ziploc.

I still don’t know how they manage to make millions of bags with tiny zippers on the ends, but Ziploc bags are pretty amazing and extremely useful.

8/3/2015 – Coolers.

Road trips, picnics, camping, shipping, lunch breaks, and so much more just wouldn’t be the same without the insulating power of a cooler.

8/4/2015 – Amusement Parks.

I’m still waiting for the day when someone decides to develop a large amusement park in the Pacific Northwest – but until then I’ll have to settle for finding them elsewhere. I love the sense of energy, happiness, and excitement at amusement parks. To an extent, I even like standing in the lines with my friends.

I love the rides – the acceleration, the weightlessness followed by elevated G-forces pulling me into my seat, the sensation of being upside down, the spike of adrenaline involuntarily pumped into your blood by your brain sensing a mega-dose of “WTF.” Thrill rides stimulate all of the senses and I leave a ride feeling very alive.

8/5/2015 – Shorts.

Shorts are comfortable. Pants suck. That is all.

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?