Gratitude Journal

I watch this and can’t help but think that I am the luckiest man in the world.

Tonight I am grateful for the inexplicable joy and near euphoria that my students experienced when successfully negotiating the prime factorization of numbers like 1,056, 2044, and 4,096. I really can’t explain it, but I witnessed fist pumps, leaps of joy, high-fives, twirls of victory,  and screams of delight upon discovering that they had successfully…

Tonight is easy. Though the list of things that I am thankful for tonight is long, one stands out above the rest. After four days apart, the longest separation I have ever had from my three-year old daughter, I am grateful that we are together again.  Elysha and I had a wonderful weekend in Vermont,…

Tonight I am grateful to my in-laws, who are spending the weekend with my daughter while Elysha and I attend a literary retreat in Vermont. Had they stuck Clara in front of the television with a bowl of Cheetos for a weekend-long marathon of The Wonder Pets marathon, I would have been grateful, but Barbara…

Tonight I am grateful to Diana, the name that we have bestowed upon our GPS unit after setting our preferences to the female British voice. I have been driving into the city a lot recently, and last night, I found myself driving home after midnight following a Moth performance. Though I have been driving into…

Tonight I am grateful for friends who allowed me to serve as a third wheel without complaint or consternation. I started the day by playing a round of golf with a friend and his wife. A lot of fun and considerably less strange than what was to come. In the evening, I joined friends who…

Is it wrong of me to be grateful that the animatronic dinosaurs at the Connecticut Science Center scared the hell out of my daughter, causing her to cling to me like never before? Sure, it would’ve been nice if she had enjoyed the exhibit a little more, but having an opportunity to play the role…