Attitude and Gratitude 2026: 30 Things (Part 1)

Like last year, I'm going to do 30 things I'm grateful for, but I've got a bit of an attitude this year. So it's going to be me likely being aggressively reframing things in positive, but hopefully not toxic, ways. (Chat GPT, was not working so grammar check will have to come later.) Or it might be me with an attitude. There will be 30. There's room for both, lol.

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1. Oxidized Soil

Life is chaotic. Nothing goes according to plan. When I stop and think about it, how often do things go according to plan without a single hitch? Hardly ever, and when they do, I usually hear people say with amazement how perfect everything was and how nothing went wrong.

But the times when everything goes sideways, everything is falling apart, and life keeps pummeling me with no mercy? 

I think I’m grateful, or at least I hope I one day will be. The only reason being that when I saw a psychic this past summer (that is an entirely different story), she said something that stuck with me: When the forest burns down, it oxidizes the soil and often leads to completely new growth. The heat of the fire can radically change things as it levels everything to the burnt, charred ground. But in the spring? It’s crazy how well a forest can recover and be stronger for it.

That doesn’t mean the land isn’t scarred. Just because sometime beautiful can replace the old, doesn't mean the devastation didn't happen or should be ignored. Sometimes things are now forever lost or destroyed. Maybe some parts don't fully recover at all.

But something new can still take its place. Sometimes even healthier than what came before it.

So I'm grateful for the fire. Even as it feels as if everything is gone or destroyed and I feel like I'm in shock. A forest can be stunningly resilient, and sometimes everything isn't annihilated. Sometimes things just end up buried under the ruin and come back once the fire is gone.

Regardless of what happens. I'm grateful for the fire. It can destroy a forest, oxidate soil, and make iron malleable. Sometimes the heat is necessary.