On my mind: Thanks, still

I think from now on, I'll try to make blog posts on Fridays, posts to go both with Rhonda Jean's On My Mind photo feature and Kellie's Give Thanks Blog Party. I probably won't manage every time, but it's a good way to keep in touch with two online communities I like being part of, at least a bit of a a part of.

And it's good to remind myself to be grateful, right?

1. List three (little) things you wouldn't want to live withoutPaper. Paper is a wonderful medium, and few things surpass the lovely smell of new books, or the lovely smell of old books. Few things smell lovely both new and old.
My good old suede shoes. Well, four years old now; I hope they’ll last for many more. They’re the best walking shoes I’ve ever had, I think. They’re made of leather suede, so they’re soft and breathe. They’re just the right shape for my feet – my feet are narrow, but quite high in the arch, so many shoes don’t quite suit them, but these do. And after four years of walking in them, they’re practically the exact shape of my feet, so...
Milk. I love milk, and dairy products. Give me yoghurt or cheese anytime. Cream. Sour cream. Quark. Kárums! Blueberry milkshake!

2. Name something you had to do without recentlyThe light bulb at the toilet when at school. The filament broke; and it’s too high for me to change myself. (Even with a ladder. I might be able to reach up there, but I’m afraid that I’d fall, so I stopped trying.)

3. What are you most thankful for that you consider a luxury?Probably also my computer. Although I keep forgetting to be thankful for it.

4. Name an item you use the most throughout your dayProbably my hands (not just thumb). I do almost everything with my hands, after all.

5. What would life be like without the item listed in #4?Very difficult.

6. Name something that you use in the kitchen that you are thankful forThe kettle. Everything would take SO much longer without it.

7. What is (one of ) the best earthly gift(s) you ever received?If my Bible counts as an earthly gift, then definitely my Bible. It was a gift from my congregation at the occasion of my baptism; and it’s one of the few earthly possessions of mine that I really, really would not want to live without. Even though I often use it much less than I wish I would.

8. Name a completely random thing you are thankful forDouble windows. There are trams under my windows when at school, you know. And they’re useful in winter, too.

9. How often do you think about the item listed in #8?Not every day. But quite often; especially when at a time one window was broken and I could hear the trams much more than I wanted to at nights.

10. Name something you recently acquired, that you have wanted for a long timeThe Madeline hat. Well, not that one hat in particular; but I’ve wanted a felt hat, a hat I could wear in winter, for some time now, and this one's so perfect.

11. Would you rather have #4, or #7?Wow, that’s tough! Probably my Bible; because my life without hands would be made easier with my Bible (or what it stands for), but my life without Bible would not be helped much by having both my hands. (OK, I know this is easier said than done. But I believe it to be so all the same.)

12. Name one of your favourite thingsBlueberry.
(You said one. :-)

13. Look around the room you are in, and name three things you enjoy in itThe blue mug I drink milk and cocoa and milk-coffee from.
My aqua stockings (hehe).
My old teddy, made by my aunt.

And some more, because three is not enough:
The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis.
Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz
My calendars by the Lithuanian artist Egle Lipeikaite.
My two photos by the Finnish photographer Anssi Mellblom (and the memory of the wonderful couple of people who gave them to me)
Reproduction of Claude Monet’s Cliffs at Belle-Ille
The heater. You have to enjoy the heater.

14. List three tools you use in your daily work that you are thankful forPencil.
My camera, which doubles as a flash disc.
Online wordbooks.

15. Name something that you sometimes wish you didn't have in your life, but that you would miss dreadfully if it were taken awayKaksi the Cat’s tendency to extract her claws when she cuddles with us.

16. Post a picture (or ten) of something you are thankful for!

Family. As complicated as things sometimes get, I'd never want a different one.
That's a clay relief I made back when I attended art courses in my hometown. It's based off a picture of various kinds of owls in a children's encyclopedia; there were five of them, and when I was a child, I always thought it was my own family of five. So this family of various owls still symbolises my family to me.

My country.

My wonderful, beautiful, severe, gentle and completely unique Bisha. She's gone now; has been for quite some time already. She just disappeared, and did not appear again. I did not want to write about it, because I still had that little hope that she would reappear, and because I did not know what to write. But she's gone now, and I'm very grateful for the chance of having her in my life.
She was my little personal fuzzy ball of Holy Spirit. I'm quoting Erazim Kohák here; it's probably very symbolic and probably very literal and I don't really know. I just know she was a blessing to me.

There's much more; but I think I'll leave that for other posts.