Category Archives: Gratitude

Nov 23 3 comments
Anonymous, Gratitude, thankfulness, thanksgiving, Thanksgiving

The Gratitude of Escape

gratitude of escape

Some things I escaped, for which I am grateful.

  • Losing an Eye – 1955/1965 – Numerous cuts around my eyes as a kid. My nickname in my family was ‘Stitch’.
  • War/Combat – 1972/73 – Was just young enough to not be drafted during the Vietnam war.
  • Injury – 1972 – Private plane landing.  Tire went flat on landing, but not before we had slowed down considerably.
  • Rape/Death – 1973 – Got in the car of a stranger during a severe rainstorm at LaGuardia Airport. Talked my way out of it successfully.
  • Death – 1973 boat explosion – Severely burned but survived.
  • Injury/Death – 1989 Loma Prieta/World Series Earthquake – Very close to the epicenter in Santa Cruz county.
  • Injury/Death/Arrest – 1993 – driving while intoxicated – Stopped drinking in May of that year.
  • Nasty Divorce – 2000 – First wife Kathy and I had an amicable divorce and remain good friends and supporters.

What have you escaped for which you are grateful?

Drawing and List by Marty Coleman, Publisher of The Napkin Dad Daily

Quote by Anonymous

Nov 25 0 comments
Gratitude, Marty Coleman, thanksgiving

A Thanksgiving Poem

It’s day #4 of Gratitude Week

________________

A Thanksgiving Poem

A Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends, family and friends I haven’t met yet, in America and around the planet!  I appreciate you all very much and love you even mucher!


Drawing and poem by me.


Nov 24 2 comments
Frank A. Clark, Gratitude, thankfulness, thanksgiving

If A Fellow Isn’t Thankful For What He’s Got

Thank goodness today is day #3 of Gratitude Week at The Napkin Dad Daily

I ran the Route 66 Marathon in Tulsa this past Sunday.  I didn’t do well during most of the race.  It wasn’t anything about training, nutrition, hydration,  race day preparation or even my time (which was bad) that makes me say that.

It was my attitude. I started out with a mess up finding the people I was going to run with.  It was crowded and I was alone, no running buddies.   My legs were sluggish to start.  My attitude wasn’t infused with thankfulness or love, it was infused with bother.  I was bothered by walkers. I was bothered by gatorade spilling on my hands. I was bothered by music bands along the way.  I was bothered by my inability to get my body in gear to keep at the pace I wanted.

Two things changed that.  At mile 21 I finally met up with two of the runners I was going to run with.  They were both stopped and in great pain.  One had to keep walking, the other started running with me.  She had injured her knee half-way through and was crying.  We kept plugging along for the next 5 miles, running, walking, running as best we could.  I was beat, she was even more beat. But she kept going with me.  All my bother melted away and I was only thinking about getting us both over the finish line.  And we made it together.

The other thing?  A young man, 27 years old, had collapsed and died on the 1/2 marathon route.  Need I say more?  Nothing changes an attitude quicker than realizing the old adage ‘There but for the grace of God go I’.  I have lived twice as long as he did. I have had marriages, children, love, travel, pleasure, pain, great friends and family. Many of these things are lost to him now and forever. 

It was a sobering reminder that my attitude, as long as I am alive, should continually strive to be at, or move towards gratitude, thankfulness and love.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman

Quote by Frank A. Clark, 1911-1991, American Pastor and Aphorist

Nov 23 1 comments
Gratitude, Samuel Johnson, thanksgiving

Gratitude is the Fruit

I am grateful today is day#2 of Gratitude Week at The NDD.

What makes a person gross?  Do you see a connection between your understanding of that term and lack of gratitude?  What does ‘great cultivation’ mean? Explain.

Drawing by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily

Quote by Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784, English author (and more!)

Nov 22 1 comments
family, Gratitude, thanksgiving

No Longer Forward or Behind

Day #1 of Gratitude Week at The Napkin Dad Daily

Thanksgiving week is a perfect time to be diligent about practicing ‘now and here’.  Your relatives might be disruptive if they are coming to visit.  You may not like their ‘fly by the seat of their pants’ way of planning a trip to your home.  You might not like their indecisiveness, their politics, their nasty habits or nasty judgments.

But they are coming.  And they will be at your house.  Are you going to ruin your own week by focusing on what you don’t like about them or are you going to enjoy your week by accepting the characters and events as they occur, lessening the time spent wishing things were different and allowing yourself to find what the good in what is happening and be thankful for it?

It’s your choice, you know.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily

Poem by John Greenleaf Whittier, 1807-1892, American Quaker poet

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