My Gratitude List

There are lots of things to be ungrateful about. The problem is it does no good to brood over them. So anytime I feel ungrateful, I try to look at what I should be grateful for. Here's my gratitude list for my life. I will be adding to this list as I recall other things I am grateful about, and the new things happen in my life that I am grateful for.

Rick Adlam is grateful every day for:

  1. Being born. Do the math. The odds against that happening at all are impossible. Yet I am here!
  2. My Mother Charmaine Winifred, [nee] Shenton. I still think of her constantly.
  3. Being born in 1950. What a golden era we baby boomers have lived through.
  4. 40 years of knowing and loving Lorraine, my life partner for all those 40 years. She is an inspiration and rock to me. After 40 years I now understand how I will never fully know someone. There is always something new to learn with you and about you.
  5. All the girls and women that I have touched my heart throughout my life. You are all important to me. You have taught me to feel, to respect boundaries, to honour, and to share, and to love on different levels beyond the sexual. You have been the major part of the mystery and wonder of being alive.
  6. The Beatles and The Rolling Stones who not only wrote some wonderful songs in the sixties that still touch me deeply now, but who changed the direction of popular music and affected everything else as a consequence.
  7. Seeing a UFO fly over the Adelaide Plains in 1986. Until then I did not believe they existed. Nor could I believe that something so big and silent could move at such velocity from a hover position. I am also grateful for having a stranger present at the time who also saw it, otherwise I would always question the sighting myself.
  8. Being healthy and having such a strong constitution.
  9. Being such a naturally lucky guy. It feels like I have a guardian Angel.
  10. Having a large family, even if most are living half a world away.
  11. Being born in England. The spin offs of this are huge.
  12. Moving to and living in Australia. What a great Country we have.
  13. All the experiences that I have had the joy of being present in.
  14. All the schoolyard fights I have had and the friendships I made afterwards with my opponents.
  15. Every teacher I have ever had.
  16. Every work experience I have ever had.
  17. The passion of wanting to work and constantly learn.
  18. Finding my calling as a salesperson early.
  19. Every sale I have ever made, from the first one when I was six, when I sold bunches of watercress that I found growing on a brook in the woods near Leek, door to door.
    • The smiling house-wives that had the grace to give me the sixpence I asked for those wilting bunches. They removed the fear from me of knocking on doors to sell.
  20. All the business opportunities I had been involved in.
  21. Meeting all the people that I have met in my life.
  22. The audacity of self belief and hope.
  23. Having a bright, enthusiastic vision of my future in the World.
  24. Having two wonderful children.
  25. My love of animals.
  26. Every dog I have ever owned. They love them all to bits.
  27. The 82 year old Scottish Surgeon who came out of retirement to save my right leg in 1968 when I was just 18, when no other surgeon would dare try.
  28. Ross Kennedy, the Surgeon who replaced my right hip in 2004, that was damaged in that 1968 accident. Good job Ross!
  29. The wonderful gift of sight and a love of natural beauty.
  30. The capacity to be touched and moved by great songs and poetry.
  31. All the friends I have had along the journey of my life.
  32. The love of reading, learning and becoming largely self taught.
  33. The capacity to love.
  34. A deep appreciation of history and how the past affects my now and my future.
  35. My ability to adapt to new circumstances without wondering who moved my cheese.
  36. My love of change and my dread of routine.
  37. The urge and the need that I feel for constant personal growth .
  38. The small successes that I have achieved.
  39. The freedom to be and do whatever I want, within the constraints of my abilities, credentials, timing and luck.
  40. The fact that you are interested enough to read this far.