Writing Myself Out

This is in response to Shimelle’s Dec. 16 prompt, about gratitude.

I had a plan for 2010 –- a great, glorious plan to record, every week, something I was grateful for. I managed it for two weeks, and then “life” got in the way. I regret that, and I want to give it another go in 2011. Too often this year I lost sight of the need for an “attitude of gratitude” and got angry, or whiny, or just emotionally worn out and careless about myself and other people. I hope that by being intentional about writing down what I am grateful for, I will carry that awareness into my day-to-day life. And that can’t help but improve things, both for me and for those I love. So consider this, not a definitive list, but a starting point.

Today, I am grateful.
I am grateful for love.
I am grateful for hot apple cider.
I am grateful for three-way giggle fests with my husband and my baby girl.
I am grateful for the stark beauty of leafless trees against a dark blue evening sky.
I am grateful for my fuzzy white blanket.
I am grateful for community sentences instead of prison time, so that a man convicted of a crime can be back at home this Christmas.
I am grateful for books.
I am grateful for Willow Traders, my on-line home.
I am grateful for safety on the highway, in a van that works.
I am grateful for cozy moccasins.
I am grateful for colour printers.
I am grateful for medications that curb depression symptoms.
I am grateful for solid marriages.
I am grateful for baby soothers, bibs, exersaucers and infant formula.
I am grateful for mandarin oranges and Danish butter cookies.
I am grateful for friendship.
I am grateful for the One who came, and lived and died and lives today, and makes everything worthwhile.

“The unthankful heart discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings.”
- Henry Ward Beecher