One of my favorite ways to hold gratitude is by writing it down! I’ve kept a journal since I was a ten-year-old kid, but seven years ago I dedicated one whole journal to gratitude. This was my special “Gratitude Journal,” and I even wrote that intention on the cover page. It has been meaningful to reread this journal recently. One day I wrote:
I am thankful for sunshine beets
For the fall season
For burgundy leaves—for burgundy anything.
I am thankful for rain
Warm blankets, and
The smell of lavender.
Later that winter I wrote:
I am thankful for laughter, even the memory of it, the thought of it, the echo of it.
What’s interesting is that during this time I was keeping a Gratitude Journal several years ago, I was also experiencing feelings of great loss. And yet, I always found things to be grateful for when that was my intention.
I feel inspired to consciously think about gratitude again at this time. To look for it. To name it. To hold it. Just reflecting on a simple early morning at home, there are many things to be thankful for.
I am thankful for:
The orangey pink sunrise
Hot coffee
A warm breakfast
Beeswax candles burning
For the new day,
And a journal to write in.
Can you think of three things you’re grateful for on this particular day? Would you like to write them down? What happens if we walk through the day this way: looking for things to be grateful for, naming them, and holding them? What if we did this every day for a whole week? Or even a whole month?
—Angie Pierce Jennings, Prairiewoods hosted groups and hospitality coordinator