Reasons to be grateful #1: This Man

This post is the first in what I aim to make a series about the things in my life that I'm most grateful for. It's been inspired mainly by podcasts that I've listened to, including Tiffany Pratt's Creative Mornings talk. I've also seen some journal type products that have been designed to encourage people to write down what they're grateful for each morning, but recently I've hit a bit of a stumbling block with list-writing, and I think something more long form will suit me better.

Without further ado, the "thing" for which I am most grateful is this lovely man: he goes by the names Poppet, Rugged Outdoorsman, and occasionally Steve.

We met on the Internet in 2013; we both had the same attitude in that we weren't interested in exchanging hundreds of emails - in terms of dating IRL, I think the Internet's only really useful for getting another human to the same time and place as you. We'd both been in situations where the person we met face-to-face didn't feel like the person we'd thought we knew, so we arranged to go for a coffee after work a few days later.

My first thought when I saw him was that he was out of my league. He was alert, open, and a good listener. We took our coffees to the beach, and walked along the prom, and I wondered if he was just being kind when he offered to take me climbing some time. Then he asked if I wanted to go for dinner, and I started to think that he might actually like me. By the end of that week, we'd gone for that climb, and I'd met most of his family at a barbecue - they are also a lovely bunch of people who have been nothing but kind and welcoming to me since that day, yet another thing I am thankful for.

I think if I had to use one word to describe Steve it'd be Open. He's honest and if he has a problem he'll tell me about it very quickly. He listens to me in the best way, and he understands me and my moods and my struggles more easily and plainly than anyone I've ever known. He's often said that I'm academically intelligent while he's practical, but his biggest strength as far as I'm concerned is emotional intelligence. He doesn't always know what to do about it, but he's usually really clear on what he's feeling and why, and can articulate it almost instantly.

Above all, he's completely supportive, He'll never say no to helping me with things that make me happy, like fixing or cleaning my bike, driving me to the airport, and more ridiculous things like covering me in parcel tape to make a mannequin, and more tedious things like proof-reading a blog post.

Anyway, we don't celebrate Valentine's Day. We're both pretty anti-"stuff", where "stuff" is mass-produced cards, and anything else destined to end up in the bin. Instead, we'll go for a nice meal with friends this weekend, and then we'll snuggle up with my crochet and his mountain biking videos and our cats, and be grateful for our little life, and excited about adventures still to come.

I hope you enjoyed this post! What are you grateful for today?

xx