Gratitude

 

November is a good month to think about gratitude.  In my classroom, during morning meetings, I would have each child offer up one thing they were grateful for... though even at the age of nine, my fourth graders let me know without a doubt that they were So Beyond This.  They repeated the same bland things over and over again... family, food, toys... or tried to make a joke out of it.

I don't joke about gratitude.  It's deeply serious to me, understanding and acknowledging the things that you are thankful to have in your life.  If you don't recognize what your blessings are, you may wake up one day to find them gone.

And so I devote my Novembers, one day at a time, to gratitude.  I post one thing I'm grateful for on my Facebook feed every day.  I begin and end my days thinking of what blessings I can count.  I send text messages to family and friends, letting them know how glad I am that they are in my life.  I'd like to think that it makes them feel as good as it does me.

There's a lot of talk about gratitude these days.  We can buy dedicated gratitude journals.  We are exhorted to be mindful of our blessings.  We wear our grateful natures like a second skin.  But do we let it go deep?  Do we absorb that gratitude past its surface level?  Do we truly, deeply allow ourselves to feel it?

I applied for a new job today... the latest in my job quest.  And I am truly, deeply grateful for the opening I found this afternoon... pet copywriter.  Even if I don't wind up with an interview, let alone with a job offer, I'm grateful to know that such a position exists.  It makes me absurdly happy to think that somewhere, out there, some manager is looking for someone to spend each day writing copy about animals.  I truly hope that someone winds up being me.

But in the meantime, I'll focus on that warm spark of a glow inside... the gratitude that I found the listing, had the time to respond to it, and had fun doing so.

And I'm grateful I have this blog to share those thoughts on.