Say Thank You!

The Dignity and Respect campaign theme this week is "Say thank you."  Do you have a daily or weekly gratitude practice?  Every day, on my to-do list, I have "gratitudes."  This is meant to remind me to write down five things that happened to me that day for which I'm grateful.  I find that when I make a concerted effort to live in active gratitude, the opportunities to express that gratitude expand.  For me, this practice, along with prayer and journaling, keep me grounded and keep stress from eating me alive.  This semester, I'm juggling 14 credits, a position in Student Government that keeps me very busy, a work-study job, and that doesn't even count my obligations to my family: my husband, elderly father-in-law, and two small children.  If I didn't have my daily practice, part of which is flexing my gratitude muscle, I would go absolutely crazy.

Today, my five things are:

1. That my son slept through the night last night

2. That the first of my three five-week computer classes is finished.

3. Cooler weather (I abhor the heat of summer and the cold of winter, but I LOVE the moderate temperatures of spring and fall!)

4. That my beautiful Betty (my car, a 2000 VW Beetle I purchased in May and have gotten off to kind of a rough start with) has run beautifully all semester so far.

5. That it's Wednesday and half my super-stress*full week is over.

Some days coming up with five things is really hard.  Like Tammy said last semester, practicing gratitude can be like practicing the piano.  Some days you feel like Lang Lang (look him up on YouTube; he's amazing!), and some days you feel like Schroeder playing Lucy's favorite version of "Jingle Bells" and it's like pulling teeth to come up with five things you're grateful for.  But try it.  Give writing down some things you're grateful for a shot.  Commit to it for thirty days, or if that seems too daunting, just commit to it for this week.  It's never taken me longer than ten minutes (if I feel really stuck, I write down things like heat, shelter, and enough food to eat) to come up with five things.  Can you commit ten minutes to gratitude?

Elizabeth