What Are You Grateful For?

It’s hard to find things to be grateful for in the midst of problems, but it’s during those difficult situations that are the ideal time to find something to be grateful for. I learned this during a difficult time in my life that forced me to surrender to the Universe, the powers that be, spirit, whatever you call the force greater than yourself.

Instead of focusing on the issues, I opened my journal one evening after receiving yet another blow, and forced myself to find something that happened during the day or week to be grateful for. A text from one of my kids telling me to have a great day. Someone holding the door open for me. The bus driver holding the bus after he saw me running to catch it. An elderly woman giving me a blessing in the grocery store, as if she knew I was going through something.

Simple things like that made me realize, gratitude doesn’t have to be grandiose as I had thought. It were these small gestures that held the most meaning for me during that difficult time. Since then, I’ve come to write about gratitude this way. Admiring a sunset, receiving a compliment or an encouraging word. In the beginning of my keeping a gratitude journal, I was on auto pilot finding something grand that happened to me in order to be grateful, some material thing, thus, my gratefulness became sporadic.

I’ve come a long way since then! Thank goodness!

Tis the season, to be thankful as we begin another holiday kick off with Thanksgiving, a time spent with loved ones. Thanksgiving is what you make it out to be. A day to spend with family and friends, or perhaps a day to spend by yourself enjoying your solitude. (We all know the meaning behind it, so woke folks please let people enjoy the day with their family and friends without feeling guilty about how this day came to be).

Nonetheless, find something this week to be grateful for. Change the trajectory. Small gestures hold great value.

In immense gratitude to you, have a thankful Thanksgiving!

XO ~Gillian