Give thanks

I know we've got a little more than two months before Thanksgiving, but Taylor and I started a new year-long tradition in our house that I thought I should share. It's called a gratitude journal. And just as it sounds, it's a book where we can write down the things we're grateful for.

It's nothing fancy. Just a few days ago, I picked up a little 280-page, black leather-bound journal with a bright blue 'W' on the front from a craft store for about $2.50. The pages are unlined, so we can write or draw or scribble or scrapbook or whatever we see fit to record our gratitude. Usually the entries are pretty simple, just a few sentences about what warms our hearts at that moment.

For example, on Friday, 9/10 at 4:04 p.m., Taylor had just left for a 10-hour shift in the ER. And I wrote:
"At this moment I am grateful for my hard-working husband who puts in long hours at the ER so that we can have a comfortable life and I can follow my academic dreams and dabble in part-time work."

On Tuesday, 9/14 at 10:50 p.m., I had just finished about 4 loads of laundry. I took a minute to jot down the following:
"At this moment I am grateful for our washer and drier in the basement. I am grateful that we can use our quarters for anything else in the world other than washing and drying our clothes now. And I'm grateful we have a home where we can keep these wonderful little machines."

It doesn't have to be anything particularly insightful or poetic--just an honest reflection of the moment. And over the past few days I've already noticed a difference in my attitude. I'd been feeling pretty down since finding out that I would never receive my final paycheck from the property management place and that my work study income was in jeopardy for the school year. So by consciously remembering the things that bring joy to my life, I can keep things in perspective and not get so consumed by the things that don't go my way. I've also found that by writing down these experiences, I am more apt to reflect daily on my experiences. Not a day has gone by that I haven't been able to find at least one thing for which I am grateful, but without my gratitude journal, I likely would have overlooked it.

I would encourage everyone to start a gratitude journal. It doesn't have to be anything fancy or formal--a few scraps of paper or an old legal pad would work just as well as an expensive journal. For just a few minutes every day, you can focus on the good in your life. And after a while, when you see all of those good things filling the pages of your book, the world will seem a little brighter.