Habitual Gratitude

Today I am grateful for our historic downtown, for sunshine, for boots to wear. One more residual Thanksgiving post to write. This one includes an idea you may want to incorporate with your family on a more regular basis than my family has. We resurrected a gratitude practice we had attempted as a family for a few months a couple years ago. I called it the "Valentine Vessel of Gratitude" and I blogged about it here  and here  in the summer of 2012. On Thanksgiving Day the four of us-my husband, stepdaughter, son, and I-each put a few things we are grateful for on slips of paper and put them in our little bowl that we had used prior. I needed to rinse it off because it had gathered dust. We used it a few times back on our first attempt, but usually at my encouragement. It was nice when we were able to use it and share what we had written, but it never really caught on.  I was a little disappointed in that, but I knew I couldn't try too hard to get the others to write t...

Today I am grateful for my recovery friends, that we can honestly share, the genuine support we offer one another. I am also grateful for naps, even brief ones.  We were able to return to another Thanksgiving tradition this year since we stayed home. Our community holds "Gobble Gait" each year on Thanksgiving morning. It's an 8K and 2K run or walk. There are a couple thousand people who join in, which is great for a community our size. It is a fundraiser and food collection for our local food shelf and family service. It's a good run for a good cause. Not to mention a good way to start a day focused on considering blessings and consuming plenty of food.  This is a picture of my husband Darcy and I after the run. If you look closely, you can see some of the frost that had accumulated on our faces and hats. The temperature was hovering right around zero. Thankfully, there was no wind. And the sun was shining. Running is do deeply meaningful and important ...

Today I am grateful for a nice Thanksgiving, a meal and laughter shared, Skype, and phone calls to connect. Today is Black Friday. That seems to be an understatement, as we have been inundated with advertising about it for weeks. Many people are out shopping or already were out shopping and are home resting. Some waited in line for hours and others gave up hours of sleep. Was it worth it? I have never been a big shopper. I have to be in the mood. Good deals and good fits are my goals. The increasing trend of Black Friday mania and madness has concerned and frustrated me in recent years. I get judgmental and worry about the materialism it seems to promote and how it makes some people rude and inconsiderate. All for an item, a thing. But I tried to broaden my perspective out this year. For some families or groups of friends, this day is about time together, new traditions, laughter, and treats. It isn't about the stuff. It's about the people you are with to get the stuff. ...

Today I am grateful for a day to celebrate gratitude with family and food. I am also grateful that, for me, every day is a day to focus on gratefulness. Habitual gratitude practice works if I work it. Consider this quote: "Gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder." (G.K. Chesterton)  Happiness doubled by wonder. Positive perception of self and surrounding world doubled by wonder. Peace and calm, even in the midst of chaos. Quiet that is inviting instead of unsettling. There are so many benefits to the gratitude practice that I do. Sharing it with others in this blog, in recovery discussions, in my monthly newspaper column, also all serve to increase both my happiness and the amazement I feel when I consider how wonderful the gift of life is, how meaningful even a mundane day can be. I will have more gratitude, and therefore contentment, when I focus on what is going well. As Dr. Christine Carter mentions in this video  on the Greater Good Science Center website, e...

Today I am grateful for time off from work and for the little joys of my favorite holiday of Thanksgiving. I mentioned yesterday that I am a late bloomer in many respects. I got married at 33, had my son at 36. But I am also a late bloomer in terms of growing into myself, being comfortable in my skin. It took time. Lots of time. Lots of work. When one is a shy, introverted child lacking attention in a large family, and when one starts to drink alcohol at a young age, one tends to have a skewed perception of self and world. When I quit drinking at age 24, I was already years behind in terms of my emotional and spiritual development. I got a slow start in recovery too, but today I know the importance of daily work for a daily disease. I am also something of a late bloomer as a writer. Although I have been a writer all my life, it hasn't been until the last few years that I have really blossomed into a blogging, column-writing essayist who shares in the public realm. The same ...

Today I am grateful for long-time and new friends in recovery. I am also grateful for my husband Darcy. Besides taking things like air to breathe and my five working senses for granted, there are numerous items I take for granted. Those include the computer I am currently using, the coffee pot that made my first cups of the day already, and the recliner I am sitting in. Also included are the rings I put on my fingers each morning. I grew up an athletic tomboy, not a girlie-girl. I hated wearing dresses. I kept (and still do keep) my hair short to keep it simple. I rarely wear make-up. I didn't get my ears pierced until I was well into my twenties. And I didn't ever wear rings on my fingers. That is, until I was 32 and got engaged. I'm a late bloomer in many respects and wearing rings is one of them. Now I am up to 5 rings. All but one were gifts to me from my husband Darcy. The other one was an antique store find. And there's the one that got away. The ring I lost...

Today I am grateful for the wisdom of recovery shared by others. I am also grateful for the warmer air and a run in shirtsleeves. We have had to weather some changing weather in recent weeks. Much of the country had unseasonably cold temperatures for November. Lots of us have already had to do some shoveling of snow. But my thoughts and prayers go out to the people of the Buffalo, New York area. They were truly left with no choice other than to wait the storm out. Now that the snow has ended and streets and roads have slowly reopened, they have warming temperatures and wind to worry about. Hopefully several feet of snow last week won't lead to several feet of floodwaters this week. Sadly, thirteen deaths have been attributed to the storm so far. Lest we forget, Mother Nature reigns supreme. And it keeps my little complaint in perspective . . . over 50 degrees yesterday and single digit wind chills today. I am grateful for a heated house, a working car, plenty of outerwear to ke...