In being grateful....

I am a creature of habit. I have a certain routine that I go through each morning after I rise and each night before my head hits the pillow. Before I became pregnant with Willow Grace, that evening routine included writing in my grateful journal each night. I would record at least three things from that day for which I thank God. I genuinely looked forward to closing my day in this way; showing gratitude to God for the blessings in my life always seems to bring with it peace. However, Willow zapped my energy so completely during my pregnancy that I would often forgo my usual routine and, completely exhausted, drag myself into bed each night falling instantly into a deep sleep.

When I habitually wrote in my grateful journal, I also found myself going through my day looking for things for which to be grateful. It changed the way I related to others and the way I saw every day occurrences. I even started to include activities in my lesson plans that encouraged my students to look for things in their own lives for which to show gratitude. Even though it may sound silly to say, I truly lived with an attitude of gratitude, and I can tell a marked difference in myself since I stopped engaging in that little task. And so, two nights ago, I started writing in it again. I can already feel a change, and I am again looking at the world around me with more a more positive perspective.

I don’t foresee myself ever going back to writing in my private journal as much as I used to. I started keeping one in eighth grade and filled up about a book a year until I wed , but I found that I had less of a need for it after I married Chris. I do still occasionally write in it, but I am able to talk over things with Chris in a way that I never have been able to with others. (That's certainly something to thank God for.) I don’t have to hold so much inside, so I have less of a need to purge my feelings, and anything else I may need to chronicle goes into this blog. I do miss writing in my journal a bit, but I just don’t have the time I once had. So while I won’t be filling those pages, I do hope to regain my consistency with the grateful journal.

While I'm not asking you to keep a journal like I do, I do want to encourage, and even challenge, you to think of things in your own life for which you can be grateful. If you could list five things for which you are grateful, what would be on that list?