My Gratefulness Challenge is soon coming to an end. It has been a big commitment this month to find time daily to write these posts, but I am really glad to be doing it. It has helped me see my life through a more optimistic lens and to realize just how lucky I am even in my lowest moments. Just being in a position where I am so privileged that I forget to be grateful for all the great stuff in my life is something in and of itself to be grateful for.

These posts have also gotten me really excited about writing and blogging. Regularly exercising my writing skills has helped me feel much more comfortable blogging and has helped stemmed so many other ideas for projects and post in the weeks to come. It has gotten me on a role! Can’t wait to share my future journeys with you all.

1. Public Transportation: Public transportation is far from perfect. If I could I would change many things about it and I know that I am prone to complaining. I would like it to go faster, be cheaper, and come more regularly. As I was waiting to get on the subway today though I had this moment where for no reason I started to think about how different my life would be without public transport.

It is one of those services that you kind of take for granted. You get so used to it being there that you forget that there are still tons of places that don’t have it, or what they have doesn’t effectively serve their area. Instead everyone either has a car or constantly has to depend on other people to get around. I’m not saying I wouldn’t love to have a car sometimes, but Toronto’s transit system doesn’t leave me needing one to get around.

If I needed to have a car right now I wouldn’t be able to live the life I have. I wouldn’t be able to afford to live alone, or downtown. I would probably not even be able to live in the suburbs of Toronto. I would be loosing hours upon hours of my week commuting into town and therefore wouldn’t have as much time to actually do the things I love.

So as much as I wish that the Toronto Transit Commission would improve in a variety of ways, I can’t help but be thankful for having access to a system which is successful enough for me to not need to find another way of getting around town.

2. Quotes: Since I was a very young girl I have always loved quotes. When I was in high school I had an entire wall in my room covered in some of my favourite quotes. Personally, the reason I think I enjoy quotes so much is their succinct nature. In a few sentences someone is able to cover a lot of ground. They are able to deliver a clear, memorable message without going into too much detail.

Quotes are a wonderful way of helping us feel connected to one another. When you read a line which speaks to you it makes you feel heard without ever having to open your mouth. The simple fact that these words, which mean so much to you were said by someone else and were memorable enough for other people to say, confirms that you are not alone in this world. There are other people out there that share your fears, hopes, and values. Also, since they are so brief you can choose to interpret them however you want.

Even now I have been known to post a great quote on my fridge or as the background on my phone. I still know some of my favourite quotes by heart and share them with others quite regularly. For various reasons these phrases have resonated with me. They are a quick, personal reminder that everything will be ok.

3. Beauty: True beauty isn’t only what you see on TV or in magazines, beauty comes from joy and optimism and confidence. Have you ever met someone and secretly thought to yourself, “Wow they are not what comes to mind when I think attractive, but they are somehow the most gorgeous person in this room.” That is true beauty: people who just radiate. They are the type of individual who leaves themselves open and vulnerable to the world around them. Their physical beauty comes from a place so honest that no social norm can block out how gorgeous they are. 

I personally believe that all things hold the potential to be beautiful, it just depends on how they choose to present themselves and how we choose to look at them. No amount of external perfection will make someone beautiful, it must come from within. My depiction of beauty is not a list of ideals or images, but instead qualities and traits. Confidence, individuality, humility, honesty, selflessness, acceptance. Those are the places that I think beauty truly comes from. The saying normally goes “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” I proposition that the saying be changed to “Attraction is in the eye of the beholder,
beauty is everywhere.”