Thursday, December 1, 2016

30 days of gratitude, another year and outrage

I didn't finish last year's 30 days of Gratitude. A year later, I step back to this space. Jote's 30 Days  always makes me think,, makes me reflect.  I let this blog founder for the year, despite so many stories to tell.  The stories aren't necessarily relevant to anyone but me, anyway.  And so many other things eat my time and my energy and often falling on the sofa with a novel seems like the best way to end an evening.

Jote's invitation this year was the invocation I needed.  Because I am so angry and so despairing and so fundamentally sad about what the election says about where we're going and who we as a nation are and have chosen to be.  And I'm a lucky one. I'm a white woman in a progressive state.

I'm not sure if I can play along properly.  I'm not sure if I can really find the gratitude within myself.  I'm hoping that this will force me to, though.

Day 1:  Shared outrage.  That I'm not alone.

And also picking up Jote's lead:  people fighting the good fight.  I'm going to highlight in each of these blogposts, someone I think is doing something worthwhile in the world.  It may be a charity, it may be an individual, it may be a corporation.  It might be largescale, it might be a small kindness.  If you like it, pass along the URL or pay it forward.

Day 1:  www.Patagonia.com  -- yep, it's a clothing company.  But it's a clothing company that has made a point of trying to be ethical and to be a reasonable steward on this earth.  This year, they announced that 100% of their Black Friday sales would be donated to environmental charities. I #optedoutside instead, but I was amazed to read that they'd done $10MILLION in sales, rather than an anticipated $1-2 million. And that they were following through.


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