Today I read the above article, and it really hit home to me. Maybe because I've just gotten past the scary newborn stage, and am now into the oh-so-fun teething stage. But partly because many folks these days are caught up in the "One Thousand Gifts" mantra, and I just haven't been able to jump on the bandwagon. Don't get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing wrong with being thankful for the little things, the everyday things, and the boring and even mundane things. I think it's great to be grateful for all the things we're given and find myself being grateful and thankful many hundred times each day (as well as being frustrated or irritated at some situation) too. But, do I need to write it all down? Because I feel like if I don't, then I'm not being thankful enough. What if I just prayerfully thank God for my blessings (generally speaking, for the most part, only a few of them specific), does that mean I'm not thankful enough? I wrote about some of those in this post a while back.
Thinking about this today, I started to mentally keep track of things I'm thankful for in the day, just to see where my thoughts randomly went (without specifically sending them anywhere, such as into thankfulness mode). I had thankful thoughts all day long.
I'm thankful that the snow was melting (I was also thankful it came!)
-for my nice warm house,
-our wood stove,
-firewood,
-my new homemade soaked oatmeal granola (yum, can't wait to try eating it tomorrow morning, and will share recipe if it's as good as I think it'll be),
-the fact that my baby boy loves my hanging paper lanterns as much as I do (he gets a big grin every time he looks at them) and I've tried taking them down in the past, but miss them too much myself
-that I got my tall counter cleaned off (rarely happens)
-good memories in the pictures I found while cleaning the counter
-my oldest son's willingness to help hundreds of times each day
-second boys grin right before I had to admonish him ---- again
-my little girl's "my wips is kind of dwy" (hint hint: need chapstick)
-my baby boy sleeping on my chest (no wonder I have so much trouble sleep training)
-my sweetie working hard for all of us, getting up so early
-hot bath with a new magazine
-cloth diapers (I have to change them more often, but they make me super happy every time I use them)
-carpet floors on cold days
-a laptop to type while in my comfy LazyBoy while nursing my baby
-Christmas lights still up in the front window that cast a warm glow on the room in the dark
-being able to crochet while baby sleeps on my chest each afternoon
-comfy baby carriers
-lots of pants for my neglectful potty training girl
-warm winter boots that I bought in Alaska that are waterproof
-dark chocolate from Trader Joe's
-beef in the freezer for when I can't get to town
-the ability to have my children home with me and to be able to educate them and watch them grow
The list could go on and on. That was just what came to mind sitting here with no deep thinking. I guess I feel guilty most of the time when this subject arises because I feel that external things/people put pressures on me, when in fact I believe I'm right where I'm supposed to be (always with room for improvement, of course!) I feel I do try to seize each day, and be thankful TO GOD (an important aspect of thankfulness that's often overlooked) for all those little and big things.
But, I do know that last year when I was depressed, nothing anyone said or did made me thankful. When someone told me, "be thankful you're not in Japan with the tsunami", all it did was make me feel more guilty. It didn't help me change my perspective in the least. When I felt physically better, my attitude changed on it's own. I guess that's why motivating posters always kind of get on my nerves. Do they actually ever work? Maybe for other personality types they do, but I "just do it" without someone else telling me to.
I guess I'm a pretty positive, self-motivated person overall, and some people aren't so much so, either in personality or in their place in life. Some people feel the world owes them a favor, or that they have some entitlement that the rest of us are not privy to. For those people, I can see how this thankfulness trend is useful and necessary. But for normal folk like me, suck it up and live!
It's getting late, so my thoughts are sort of getting rambly...nighty night!
Thinking about this today, I started to mentally keep track of things I'm thankful for in the day, just to see where my thoughts randomly went (without specifically sending them anywhere, such as into thankfulness mode). I had thankful thoughts all day long.
I'm thankful that the snow was melting (I was also thankful it came!)
-for my nice warm house,
-our wood stove,
-firewood,
-my new homemade soaked oatmeal granola (yum, can't wait to try eating it tomorrow morning, and will share recipe if it's as good as I think it'll be),
-the fact that my baby boy loves my hanging paper lanterns as much as I do (he gets a big grin every time he looks at them) and I've tried taking them down in the past, but miss them too much myself
-that I got my tall counter cleaned off (rarely happens)
-good memories in the pictures I found while cleaning the counter
-my oldest son's willingness to help hundreds of times each day
-second boys grin right before I had to admonish him ---- again
-my little girl's "my wips is kind of dwy" (hint hint: need chapstick)
-my baby boy sleeping on my chest (no wonder I have so much trouble sleep training)
-my sweetie working hard for all of us, getting up so early
-hot bath with a new magazine
-cloth diapers (I have to change them more often, but they make me super happy every time I use them)
-carpet floors on cold days
-a laptop to type while in my comfy LazyBoy while nursing my baby
-Christmas lights still up in the front window that cast a warm glow on the room in the dark
-being able to crochet while baby sleeps on my chest each afternoon
-comfy baby carriers
-lots of pants for my neglectful potty training girl
-warm winter boots that I bought in Alaska that are waterproof
-dark chocolate from Trader Joe's
-beef in the freezer for when I can't get to town
-the ability to have my children home with me and to be able to educate them and watch them grow
The list could go on and on. That was just what came to mind sitting here with no deep thinking. I guess I feel guilty most of the time when this subject arises because I feel that external things/people put pressures on me, when in fact I believe I'm right where I'm supposed to be (always with room for improvement, of course!) I feel I do try to seize each day, and be thankful TO GOD (an important aspect of thankfulness that's often overlooked) for all those little and big things.
But, I do know that last year when I was depressed, nothing anyone said or did made me thankful. When someone told me, "be thankful you're not in Japan with the tsunami", all it did was make me feel more guilty. It didn't help me change my perspective in the least. When I felt physically better, my attitude changed on it's own. I guess that's why motivating posters always kind of get on my nerves. Do they actually ever work? Maybe for other personality types they do, but I "just do it" without someone else telling me to.
I guess I'm a pretty positive, self-motivated person overall, and some people aren't so much so, either in personality or in their place in life. Some people feel the world owes them a favor, or that they have some entitlement that the rest of us are not privy to. For those people, I can see how this thankfulness trend is useful and necessary. But for normal folk like me, suck it up and live!
It's getting late, so my thoughts are sort of getting rambly...nighty night!
