- Having an entire fig straight from an urban-wild tree on today’s morning walk!
- Getting my emails organized.
Gratitudes
Written By: Zachary Kai » Published: | Updated:
A running collection of my daily gratitude lists: 48 days of small things, noticed and noted. (Ordered reverse chronologically.)
2026
- Had half a fig straight off the tree this morning which Mum found on her walk! It was delicious.
- Discovered by accident that the ‘Shopify’ integration for ‘Claude’ can create product variants! Automatically! Wow that'll save time.
- Decided to see ‘LLMs’ as a battalion of assistants, ready to save time so I can live my one wild and precious life, instead of constantly seeing them as pressuring me to always be giving them tasks.
- Realizing I can dictate emails to friends and family while on my morning walk.
- Nothing to deal with in Gmail.
- Got the Wordle puzzle just in time!
- Getting up early to get my ‘morning routine’ out of the way and getting it done in peace.
- It rained last night so it made for a pleasant early morning walk! The world always feels fresh.
- A friend messaging me to say they can’t wait to hear my opinion on this month’s book club pick.
- Got my $60 AUD refund back from Niagara Launcher, finally! No more accidental purchases.
- Recognizing I don’t have to always have something playing to be ‘useful’ or ‘productive.’
- Going for a morning walk when the temperature was so lovely.
- Seeing Seth Godin has a book launching this year, and requesting it on Netgalley.
- Realizing I can let go of any book, for whatever reason, even if I’m halfway through.
- Realizing just because I love books doesn’t mean I can’t have periods where I don’t read as much.
- The cool breeze on this morning’s walk.
- A friend wishing me a happy (belated) birthday and me remembering to reply in decent time.
- Refusing to procrastinate any longer with the reviews expected on Netgalley.
- Someone complimenting the design and breadth of my ‘CV’ on my site.
- A friend sending me birthday wishes via email.
- A friend sending me the link to the notes for last night's zine event.
- Having a strange dream that prompted to make a decision that'll further simplify my life: making my zines public domain and ‘pay-what-you-want.’
- My birthday falling on a Sunday, and waking really early, so I both had some time to myself to catch up on a few digital admin tasks and have a morning walk with basically no one around. It's so quiet and cool! Sun's just coming up.
- Seeing what looked like an enormous Irish Wolfhound with a long coat, for some reason??
- The way the early morning sun casts shadows on the buildings.
- The heady scent of star jasmine
- Saw my first daihatsu in years
- Realizing I'm still allowed to have my morning routine, even if I wake a little later than usual.
- Remembering to turn on a python script for work so I can let it run while I do other things!
- Changing my Phone lock screen to display the date and removing the battery from the status bar.
- Someone giving me answers to the ‘IndieWeb Carnival’ host questions.
- Doing my yoga with audio-only.
- Realizing I don’t have to be in the IndieWeb chat constantly. Uninstalled ‘Slack’ on my phone.
- A butterfly crossed the road as I did on this morning’s walk.
- Attending the ‘Webweaving Workshop’ and taking notes.
- Exploring the internet and reading posts while I eat a delicious dinner.
- Going on a walk and trying to notice the small things.
- From Yesterday:
- Saw a mother with three kittens. One black like her, two black and white striped.
- Mum doing the vacuuming, cleaning the bathroom, and making dinner. What did I do to deserve such kindness?
- Mum’s special scrambled egg omelette thing for dinner.
- Discovering a really well written young adult novel.
- ‘Discussing’ things with ‘Claude’ to help me make sense of them and move forward. No shame in that.
- Accepting I can call myself aroace if that helps.
- Getting over the fear of my musical tastes calcifying in my late twenties. I'll never stop!
- Getting paid by a client.
- Finishing transcribing an episode for them.
- Going for an early morning walk and seeing flowers.
- From Today:
- Forcing myself to resist the urge to just wallow in bed.
- Reading the latest issue of Dense Discovery and entering a giveaway they're running.
- Someone sharing their Shelf Source interview.
- Having the chance to attend an author talk tonight!
- Reading about the fascinating history of simplified spelling.
- Getting two people to agree to be interviewed on ‘Shelf Source.’
- Realizing I can move through this life in joy, and not endless torturing myself.
- Asking for what I want (and getting it) at least with an ARC of another Sarah Wallace book!
- Receiving another issue of Dense Discovery to read!
- A client agreeing to my proposal for their website template!
- Getting some time to myself, even if I've woken way too early.
- Getting an email from a friend!
- Attending the webweaving workshop and being thanked for taking notes.
- Seeing a little more of Montenegro’s capital, including a lovely park and the river.
- Waking up early means more time to myself, hooray! Though I’m getting lots of that lately.
- It’s treat day today and I successfully vanquished a confusing appliance by getting the oven feature to work! Took a while, but I’ve made my very own version of a ‘Persian love cake.’
- Having my own room! And a huge, comfortable (if squishy) bed!
- Trying out voice typing on my phone for emails and journaling.
- Not having to take a bus/plane.
- After a few rounds of edits, got my piece for Elpis accepted for publication! Hooray!
- Playing basketball with a family member (and an improvised game of catch over a volleyball net.)
- Plenty of people also playing sports together around us in the court.
- Having fun with writing for work (at least!) You take it where you can get it.
- Becky Chambers’ new book got announced for an October release! At last!
- Made a lemon-blueberry cake that turned out really well.
- Waking up earlier than usual.
- Getting organized for (finally) taking the postcards to the post office tomorrow.
- Stopping my procrastination on a few fronts, at least.
- Working out a better way to use Claude for better drafting and rewrites for work.
- Finishing a book I'm due to review.
- Having Claude Cowork to do things while I do other stuff.
- Reading India Holton's books.
- Mum and Dad being willing to get the ‘Max’ plan for Claude so we can get more done.
- Reading India Holton’s books, which are just the escape I need right now.
- Making time to learn more about using LLMs and getting ideas.
- Attending the HWC Writing Edition and hearing all the discussions.
- Joining Letterboxd and being reminded of all the brilliant films I’ve watched over the years.
- Reading The Genius Myth and its fascinating collection of essays.
- Treat day today! Hooray!
- Pancakes with bananas and blueberries for breakfast.
- Made an orange-syrup cake that turned out really well, surprisingly. Hooray.
- Seeing a pigeon hang out on the balcony for a while when I was doing my morning yoga.
- Greek yogurt is so thick and delicious it’s almost luxurious.
- Getting lots of systematizing done work-wise!
- Mum taking care of me and suggesting I sit in the sun for a while (which was very restorative.)
- A little vegan pesto with dinner! Yum!
- Those ridiculously decadent overripe sundried olives!
- Shooting basketball hoops with a family member.
- Getting all my zines (so far) onto Metalabel (crossing yet another thing off my New Years Goals.)
- It’s treat day today! Hooray!
- Shot a few hoops with a family member at the basketball court as exercise.
- Realized I’m allowed to make boundaries with family members. I’m an adult now.
- Shooting hoops with a family member on an abandoned? basketball court.
- Having falafels for dinner!!
- Finding a free documentary travel series on YouTube and watching an episode about the Greek Pelopenese over dinner.
- Not getting sick and freaking out completely over the change in country/routine.
- Shooting a few basketball hoops with a family member and Dad at a basketball court with a ball from the apartment we’d just moved into, and going for a walk along the waterfront.
- Someone driving us to Thessaloniki, and the drive going much smoother/quicker than expected.
- Having a dolmade and La Costeña beans for dinner after finding them at the supermarket!
- Someone replying with their answers to the ‘IndieWeb Carnival’ host questions last night.
- Someone preparing me a pancake for breakfast and eating it while reading.
- It being treat day today! A family member being willing to share fried bread with me. Hooray for toast!
- People being willing to participate in the ‘Host Interviews’ for the ‘IndieWeb Carnival.’
- Making the decision to give up eating oats, granola, and cereal (except when eating out.)
- Continuing to ask people if they’d be interested in the IndieWeb Carnival Questions.
- Reading India Holton’s back catalog.
2025
- Continuing on with the plot outline for the latest story. It’s hard going, but worth it!
- Getting to speak to Granny early in the morning.
- Making a few book sales and getting a positive review of Book Two.
- Waking up with a bunch of things I need to remember and managing to get them all done!
- Making a ‘rule’, perhaps better classed as a habit, that I don’t eat anything past 7.59pm. That way, my stomach is given time to start digesting before bed, and I’m less likely to eat dessert I don’t need. Which is exactly what happened yesterday!
- Having a better sleep because I read fiction last night instead of revving myself up by talking about business ideas like the previous one. I need a wind-down routine!
- Waking up to what smelled like freshly baked bread? No idea why, but pleasant!
- Continuing my routine of adding five minutes of writing, five minutes of working on my sites, and five minutes of reading to my morning routine. No apologies for taking a little longer!
- Having avjar (capsicum spread) on my salad and beans!
- Getting delicious, wholesome food served to me for meals.
- A peaceful time doing the dishes by myself.
- Attending Homebrew Website Club! Listening to their conversations and contributing.
- Working on my websites and making them load faster!
- Waking up a little earlier than usual so I have the early morning to myself.
- Setting up my phones with all audio files (so far) so I can listen to music without overwhelming my computer. Not having Media Player running while working should help it last!
- Mum continuing to do all the food preparation (and cleanup!) so I can continue working.
- Despite the initial overwhelm, spending more time after work editing the current short story in progress. Almost finished it, and as a result, don’t have to tomorrow! Really enjoyed it. I can write cozy mysteries and like the process. I’m still learning the genre’s aesthetics.
- Getting a little more organized for finding work, and feeling a little less overwhelmed.
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