Recently, I learned that the NZ mental health project Be Great has designated June 24-30 as Thankfulness Week.

The reasons why are summarised in The Thankfulness Project 2019 page on the Be Great website:

To lift spirits in the coldest darkest week of the year

June 24 – 30 is one of the lowest daylight hour weeks in New Zealand, a cold and dark time when people can struggle with depression. The goal is to help people in this time by inspiring them to think of all the good things there are about being alive as opposed to the cold and dark time of year it is.

The way I clicked onto the project, though, was from seeing an advertisement in my local newspaper (I know, so old school! 😉 ), heralding the week with the header question:

“What Are You Thankful For?”

I’ve known about the idea of ‘thankfulness’ and the connection to mental health for some time and have found it a useful exercise to occasionally take a moment of quietness “amid the noise and haste” (to quote Max Ehrmann’s Desiderata) and focus on the “good stuff”, aka those aspects of life and my experience of it that I’m thankful for.

This used to be my gym

I probably did it more regularly immediately after Christchurch’s February 22^nd 2011 earthquake, because it felt important to stay focused on the “half full” side of the glass, when there was so much “half empty” all around. Although this state has gradually eased, as you’d expect, over the past eight years, the need to stay grounded and remind myself of the plus side did continue well beyond the immediate event (a bit like the years of aftershocks, lol.)

In terms of continuation, those who’ve been through similar experiences will not be surprised to learn that the “disaster and heroic” phase was succeeded by what I described as the “grunge” transition of “everything broken, very little happening/changing”, then the subsequent iterations of “repair/rebuild” and “recovery”, which were characterized by an unrelenting grimness and grind of bureaucracy, insurance “settlements” (ha!), and negotiating the physical realities of the repair/rebuild process on a citywide scale.

Friends & neighbours, being the solution 2011

So as you’re probably guessing, reminding oneself of the positives, starting with being alive immediately post February 22^nd(!) was an important part of keeping going. It can be a little challenging to do it in a public way without seeming saccharine, so usually it’s a private exercise, but since this is Thankfulness Week, I thought getting on board with a post was a good way of showing support.

The exercise set out in the advertisement was to “look around and think of 10-20 things you are thankful for, such as life, family, friends, you, your body, this country, your vocation…”

My list actually has a pretty long tail depending on how far I did down in terms of detail, but for today I’m keeping it to the big hits:

• 

  River, Ocean, Sky…

  My life partner, who is smart, funny, an all-round good guy, and made of awesome #justsayin’ J

• Family – both my own immediate family but also my extended whanau, which includes my partner’s family and a network of cousins on both sides
  .
• Friends! So many of you and so mighty fine. Sometimes, like family, we come and go, connect and reconnect, but friends are definitely a big part of what makes my world go around.
  .
• Living in a relatively peaceful, relatively sane – most of the time anyway! – country. I say this while fully acknowledging the recent mosque attacks here in Christchurch which saw the mass murder of 51 people and serious injury of another fifty more. Nonetheless, I still believe the “relatively peaceful, relatively sane” remains true overall and that’s actually a pretty big deal on the thankfulness scale.
  .
• As I said in my Month of Joy post for Skiffy and Fanty a while back, “the colour blue” – particularly as it manifests in sea, rivers, and sky “all around us”
• 

  Very big trees

  As those who follow this blog *may* have picked up, nature in all its forms is something I consistently appreciate, from the small wonders and delights of my garden, to trees, wildlife, mountains…

• The cosmos, ie stars, planets, space and how it all works – as much as we know – is probably an extension of nature as per this planet, but I feel it’s sufficiently distinct to get its own category, especially as I can then add in the fascination of space exploration and Hubble telescopes et all without creating a separate category
  .
• As I also hinted in the Month of Joy post, writing and storytelling is a pretty big deal in the Life of Helen and something I value highly – even if it does kick my butt on a far too regular basis! — as I also value those who are part of the larger writing ‘whanau’, including fellow writers, my agent and her team, publishers and their teams, and last but very far from least, readers.
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• I am, of course, an avid reader myself so books, but also music, are big ticket items on the ‘thankfulness’ list.

Very small birds — Fantail; credit, B Miller

• I’m going to stop at ten, but also cheat a little because I’m going to say food (not least, having enough of it, most of the time, which is no small thing), both making it and sharing with others (back to family and friends, aye!) and also wine, especially to have with the food – which is a cunning 5 or 6 items in one. 😉

Anyway, that’s my list! Please feel welcome to join in via the comment, or just store “What I’m Thankful For” away as a tool for times when taking a step back and considering the good stuff seems the right way to go.

And be careful out there, amid the noise and haste.

—

Just to finish, here are a few ‘fellow writer’ snaps… 😉

“Double author trouble” — Mary Victoria ‘n’ me

Me’n Courtney Schafer, Sydney 2016

with Julie Czerneda, Natcon 2009

SpecFicNZ — Christchurch writers