Worth Sharing: Attitude of Gratitude, Thanksgiving

As the years pass, I am coming more and more to understand that it is the common, everyday blessing of our common everyday lives for which we should be particularly grateful. They are the things that fill our lives with comfort and our hearts with gladness - just the pure air to breathe and the strength to breathe it; just warmth and shelter and home folks; just plain food that gives us strength; the bright sunshine on a cold day; and a cool breeze when the day is warm.

Oh we have so much to be thankful for that we seldom think of it in that way!
~Laura Ingalls Wilder




Years ago, when we were in some of the toughest of our financial years, I found myself stressed, full of tension, negative and complaining.  It got so I could barely stand to hear my own thoughts!  I could only imagine how others must have dreaded to see me about to speak knowing that whatever I had to say would be mournful and unhappy.

Then I read Sarah ban Breathnach's Simple Abundance.  Her mandate to readers to keep a Gratitude Journal was life changing for me.  It was a mental reset at the end of each day that gradually took over my life.

Not too long ago, John was describing traits that people had that he admired.  "What's mine, John?" I asked, genuinely curious.  "You...Well you are just the eternal optimist.  If there's a black cloud you immediately see the silver lining."   I was moved to tears.  That girl...That's who I wanted to aspire to be way back when I first picked up a notebook and began my first daily gratitude journal.

At the end of each day I wrote down just five things I was grateful for that day.  Here's where revelations came for me in those long ago years.    Sunrise, sunset, a flower blooming, an unexpected gift, a sweet or funny thing one of the children said, a moment when John and I were so in tune that I was amazed, a particularly memorable, though very frugal, meal.

Some days....Well some days I couldn't find a whole lot to be grateful for.  Those days often read: I woke up, I made it through the day, this day is OVER, I can go to sleep, I never have to do this day again.   Those days happen.  But for the most part, the days were full of the most ordinary things, daily things, not great huge checks that came in the mail or miraculous things, but just the ordinary moments which proved to be pretty extraordinary after all.

"There will always be more blessings than burdens...even if some days it doesn't seem so" - Jeffrey R. Holland

So here's my challenge to you this week...Start a gratitude journal.  Take note of the little things, the moments, that are truly the biggest blessings you'll ever have.  Life changes so rapidly but it's seldom the major things we lose that we miss.  It's the little things of an ordinary life.  Cherish those.  Record them.  And then breathe out a prayer of thankfulness.   You'll be amazed at how peaceful your life will begin to feel.



I suppose because I was seeking an English composer last week and found Delius that I triggered an algorithm which led me to discover another English composer this week.  Ralph Vaughan Williams was born to a well to do family in 1872.  His compositions are varied.  He was strongly influenced by Tudor and Medieval music but his works truly move across a spectrum of moods and styles.

I'm not going into a long biography this week but if you click on his name above it will carry you to Wikipedia where you can read his story.   On You Tube, I highly recommend a piece that will likely be familiar, The Lark Ascending, played here by Hilary Hahn.  Let me highly encourage you to listen also to other pieces by this very talented and multi faceted composer.



Do you read the comments on posts here on the blog?  I do hope so.  There's often some very good ideas and valuable tips hidden in those comments.  And if you read here but seldom take time to comment I'd love to hear from you.  Don't be anonymous...Take time to leave me your name/alias if you don't have a Google user account name.

Could you use a little fun mail?  I'm afraid I have to limit this to the United States.  Postage is a dear thing these days but...I have a copy of Gladys Taber's The Stillmeadow Road that I picked up in a thrift store not realizing I had a copy on my bookshelf already.  I'd love to send it to someone who loves Taber's Stillmeadow books as much as I do.   I'd like to have a drawing for this book.  You'll have to leave a comment and I'll have Josh draw a name April 16 and I'll post the winner's name on the "Worth Sharing" post for that same week.