for the one-up(er)

gratitude is weighing heavy on me.  i’m so grateful. the laundry list of people and actions and happenings and things i am grateful for seem endless to me.  the thought of having to list it all seems a dauntless task. 

someone who does not even know me has done something for me and given me something that i will never, ever be able to pay back for as long as i live. that’s rare for me and it’s really bothering me (and it bothers me that it bothers me). 

i’m a one-up(er) girl.  you got that, right?  you do something for me and the next thing you know i’m one-upping you and i will try to one-up you for as long as you try to give to me.  i’m sure it’s a clinical illness, we won’t go there. 

i can’t one-up this one.  so, here I sit with my gratitude trying to figure out how i’m going to say 'thank you' for the most unbelievable life experience i can imagine.  how do i say ‘thank you’ for a once in a lifetime opportunity?  this person checked 2 items off my bucket list and it was done with the ease of asking me if i would like a glass of water. i am still in disbelief.

it all started as a series of events on twitter.  this domino effect has made a really positive profound difference in my life and in the lives of those i love around me.  i’ve tried to trace back to the exact moment the connections were made or track back to where these events actually started. 

of course i tried, if you read the last post or know me at all, you know i failed again and wasted time on trying to research the details, the dates, the times, the numbers.  i finally stopped (remembering i’m not going to do that any longer for the 98^th time this year).  the beauty of this story is not found in those details.

i’m not even sure i can call it a story, i certainly haven’t been able to tell it coherently to anyone.  it’s a series of events that have connected several lives in such a way that we are all different now because we know each other and there’s no going back to the point where we were not all connected.  you see what i mean?

it started on twitter but it jumped to IRL (thanks to @swagclub for the daily reminders of living in the real not the webs). twitter was just the catalyst that brought us together IN REAL LIFE. 

now we are all headed on a journey together, literally for a few of us and figuratively for all of us.  it’s exciting, it’s refreshing, it’s instigating & it’s a significantly positive experience (unless you're vegetarian, wait, wrong blog post).

so, here’s to gratitude and being fortunate enough to experience something that is bigger than you can fathom and here’s to living in real life.

if by the chance you read this, yeah, you, the one, the one-up(ers) of all one-up(ers), i’ll forever be grateful and in your debt.  whatever you need, no matter the day or time, i’ll be there. thank you. cheers!