The Reluctant Blogger - Practice Gratitude

About six years ago, my husband decided we needed to be more intentional about being grateful. He brought home a large jar. Cut up slips of paper, and encouraged us all to write something expressing our gratitude, and put it in the jar. Now, we started slow at first, and then through encouragement, each of us would think of something small, or an event would happen, and we would add our “gratefulness” or “gratitude” notes into the jar. Everyone participated - me, my husband, my mother-in-law who lived with us at the time, my son, and my daughters, when they happened to be home.

We didn’t add something every day, but when something impacted one of us, we picked up a slip of paper, wrote a gratefulness note, and dropped it in the jar. They were simple, yet impactful.

• I’m grateful for mom’s spinach lasagna.

• I’m grateful I get to watch Nick play baseball.

• I’m grateful Marcia cleaned the kitchen.

• I’m grateful for family game night.

• I’m grateful for my job.

• I’m grateful the girls came to visit.

The best part came at Thanksgiving. We would pull out the jar, and one at a time we would pass it around the dinner table, taking out a slip of paper, reading it, and then guessing the author. Some were funny. Some drew “ahhs”. Some made me cry.

At my mother-in-law’s memorial service a year ago, we pulled out the gratitude notes she wrote and read them at her service. A loving tribute of gratitude for the many years she lived with us.

November is National Gratitude Month. It is a perfect time to think about what you are grateful for and consider how you can incorporate gratefulness into your daily life.

• With your team – practice starting your weekly meeting with 1 thing you are grateful for

• With your friends – send notes throughout the month on why you are grateful for their friendship

• With your family – maybe you can start a gratitude jar or express it at the dinner table at least once a week;

• With others – try incorporating random acts of gratefulness – leaving a note for your server, baking cookies for your neighbor, complimenting a stranger, holding the door, and smiling. Crazy!

Didn’t your mother tell you it was better to give, then to receive? This is a practice that definitely comes back to you in amazingly wonderful ways.

Now, how might you show gratitude this month?