I guess 'inspiration' can be earth shatteringly cathartic, or just something that doesn't seem so big. So today I'm thankful for the Allman Brothers. Why you ask? Well I just put in "Eat a Peach" and listened to the whole damn thing. During and after I just felt good. I felt optomistic and energized; and I have no idea why. Music does that to all of us at one time or another I suppose, so the Allmans get to be my everyman music this morning! I know we all like to get tanked and stuff like that to escape frequently, but music can still do it for me, and for that I am thankful. Didn't cost me anything, I'm not worn out, but it still made me feel great (especially after listening to the guitar in "Blue Sky"

).
I think it came down to me just sitting down with no other pressures and just appreciating it and not letting the 'noise' of life/work/economy sneak in for a while. Not too many things that can do that to me anymore.
One last thing about this thread for me. It has had a profound impact (in the whopping few days I've been posting something on here) on me. Nothing has changed, I haven't had a bunch of good "stuff" happen to me since I started, yet it has helped. It has me thinking, sometimes all day, about what I have to be grateful for. That exercise has really changed my outlook, at least in the short term. I know this isn't going to help 'big' stuff. But we all know what to do in those situations. My problem is "what the hell do I do now to stay happy on a day to day basis?". I have to have something to put a smile on my face; besides sex

. I don't have any illusions that this thread right here is going to be what it takes to make me keep my chin up, but it's another tool for the toolbox if you will. I don't know, it feels philosophical and I'm such a nuts and bolts kind of guy that I can't express myself very well, but I just didn't really know that this would help me the way it has.