Today I am thankful for...
thanks?
Well, really, the opportunity to give thanks. Or is it the impetus to give thanks?
Either way I am happy that, for whatever reason, I could sit down at my computer every day this month and find some blessing in my life. Heck I found more than just some blessing...I found many many blessings.
Several of you commented or emailed me this week that you enjoyed my Thirty Days of Thanks posts, that it helped you to find small gratitudes in your lives. If so, I cannot tell you how glad that makes me. But it is a happy accident, for my small experiment was meant largely to make a difference to me. There have been so many times in my life that I have slipped into a dark hole of depression and negativity (heck just last year) and when that happens I find that I cannot see the gifts and pleasures that are right in front of me. Taking a few moments each day to really look at all the wonderfulness that is my life seems to keep me out of that hole. It's simplistic, I know, and most likely my brain chemistry serves as both my enemy and friend in this regard, but I like to believe that gratitude is my miracle antidepressant.
With that in mind, I started wondering if I should take Pat's (joking, I'm sure) remark to heart and carry my Thirty Days of Thanks on through December to 60, or, more accurately, 61 days. After all the December theme for NaBloPoMo is THANKS. And it is the Christmas season.
Then I overheard my mom talking to Owen about her Joy List. For years, my mom has kept what she calls her "Joy List". This is a journal (maybe she has several by now) where she simply writes her joys. Things that make her happy. "Joy" has long been my mother's favorite word and while the Joy List is similar to most people's Gratitude List, it is also different in its emphasis on those things that bring a special level of happiness and pleasure and contentment in her life. I like that.
So what I decided is this: November, fittingly, I celebrated Thirty Days of Thanks. In December, then, I would like to celebrate 31 Days of Joys. Every day in December I will post--for my myself, for my mom, and for you--those things which bring me joy.
I hope you will follow along. Who knows, maybe I can inspire you to celebrate your own joys in life.
