2023 Gratefulness

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 New Year's Resolutions...do you make them?  Do you keep them?

I stopped making them a few years ago.  I started making New Year's Intentions.  The difference?  Not much.  The definitions are similar.  But I like to think of it as a plan, a goal, not a promise.  Regardless, last year I decided I needed to be more grateful in 2023.  So I made that my intention.  I have a pouch (as shown in the picture) that says Grateful on it.  I cut up small slips of paper and dated them, starting on January 1st.  The beginning of the year was pretty easy. Family, friends, workout buddies, my car, a job that creates a paycheck, etc., etc.  So when I ran out of the obvious, I would try to find something that happened that day that I was grateful for. I soon realized that I had to dig really deep some days to find something.  Some days I honestly would write "my car started", or "I have a job", or "I have a warm dry house to sleep in".  These are pretty basic, but digging deep, and not finding much that happened that day that I was grateful for, I found myself thinking about things that I normally would just take for granted.  Did I have car issues that meant that it didn't start some days? No. You get my meaning here, right?  All of a sudden, I was actually FEELING the gratefulness I SHOULD always feel!  This was a revelation to me.

Fast forward a bit. Some not so good things happened to me, and I wanted to just curl up and wallow in my misery and self pity.  Did I?  No.  First of all, that's just not me, and second of all, I had to find SOMETHING every day to be grateful for.  Wow, this was hard.  I remember writing one day "I'm alive". Really! That's about as basic as it gets.  But when you write that down as your grateful thought of the day, it hits differently.  Yes, I AM alive.  I only get one life.  I should be very grateful for each day.  

So now we are nearing the end of 2023 and I have a very full pouch of gratefulness.  I have not missed one single day.  On New Year's day, I plan to read through those slips of paper.  I want to go into 2024 realizing how fortunate I really am! Is every day good?  No!  But if you end every day finding something to be grateful for, even if you have to dig real deep, you will go to sleep with a different attitude. An attitude of gratitude. (See what I did there?)

I will use that grateful pouch for a different purpose in 2024.  It will hold my daily prayer request.  Whatever is weighing heaviest on my heart each evening will be written down and put in the pouch.  In 2025, I will read those and I know I will realize how many were answered.  

Moral of this story?  Dig deep.  If you have to, dig really really deep. But regardless, try to find something every day that you are grateful for.  It honestly will increase your awareness of how good your life really is. Will you have extra money, a perfect body, wonderfully romantic marriage, etc?  Nope.  It's not a magic genie. It's a gratitude journey. And you won't be sorry!


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