This week, all over the media, there are posts, stories, and other little exhortations for you to give thanks…and buy their merchandise! So here’s a quiet little corner to retreat to, that’s not about money at all. Not about buying anything, or taking an expensive trip, or anything at all related to our economy.

It’s been several very weird years. Covid is still with us. Many of us have been forced to learn things we never would have chosen to learn — like how to cope with loss. How to handle finances when the money just isn’t there. How to survive….

The trick to life, though, isn’t just to survive. It’s about learning to thrive, at least a little, even as we work on survival. And gratitude can help.

Gratitude can reduce all those negative emotions that drag us down and make life seem more like a burden than a gift. Nurturing an attitude of thankfulness can clear away the miasma of regret, resentfulness, whatever negative feelings that creep in to taint your view of life. 

Like any other habit, gratefulness can be learned. Like learning anything, though, it requires practice. So let’s practice a little….

I’m grateful for __. What would you put in that blank? 

My turn….

First of all, I’m grateful for these guys:

I could write a book about how they’ve made my life richer! Maybe someday I will….

Color always makes me happy! I’m grateful for flowers of every hue,

glad to have healthy eyes that can see them (some people don’t) and a brain that can process their beauty. And for the fall colors:

Every time I venture out into the outdoors, to climb… 

to hike… to walk…to enjoy a mountain lake…

 

just to be outdoors…I’m grateful that my body allows me to enjoy those things. For many people, that’s not the case. My mother had had polio as a child; she would have loved to do any of those things! She used to say things it took me a lifetime to understand, like, “In my whole life, I’ve never run.” Never run?! As a kid, I found that thought so horrible that my young brain couldn’t process it. Now, with a ruined foot (from a botched surgery), a complaining knee, some battered other parts that object strenuously to being pushed, now I can understand some of that regret. And that comprehension makes me even more grateful that even at 70, I can enjoy those activities. 

And so grateful for friends, who make all those activities so much more fun!

My list is quite long. This week, make your own list, and think about those things on Thanksgiving, and every other day of the year. You’ll probably find it makes your whole year just a little better. 🙂