Gratitude Journal

[journeynow]

1) Naps

 

2) Dreams

 

3) Breath

 

4) My telephone

[journeynow]

1) Love

 

2) Kindness

 

3) A budding friendship

 

4) My computer

 

5) Oatmeal

[journeynow]

6) Living in a northern climate with relatively cooler temperatures, plenty of trees for shade, mountains and valleys for breezes, and water for nourishment and play. Thank Goodness!!!

[journeynow]

1) My bathtub, plumbing, clean water, deep well

 

2) Books

 

3) The web of people, past and present, that make my life possible

 

4) My mother (Thanks, Mom!)

 

5) Being a mother

 

6) Learning

 

7) Creativity, and the people that share theirs

[journeynow]

1) Old friends

 

2) Connecting accross miles, cultures, time

 

3) A full day

 

4) Vanilla gelato

[journeynow]

1) My pipewrench

 

2) A problem fixed, even if temporary

 

3) I did it!

 

4) This gentle morning

 

5) Gentle advice and encouragement

 

6) Humor shared

 

7) Going offline to focus elsewhere

 

8 ) Almond butter

[journeynow]

1) Being pain-free

 

2) Rest

 

3) My drawing table

 

4) My community

 

5) Friendship

[journeynow]

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."

 

— MELODY BEATTIE

[journeynow]

1) Having enough

 

2) Every stranger that has become a friend, and those that will in the future

 

3) This new day

[journeynow]

4) Moss and ferns and evergreens

 

5) Birdsong

 

6) My path through the woods

 

7) Hundreds (or thousands?) of acres of wild land around me

 

8 ) A puzzle resolved

 

9) Asking

 

10) Answers

 

11) A kind word

[90_hour_sleep]

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."

 

— MELODY BEATTIE

 

this is beautiful, jn.

[journeynow]

this is beautiful, jn.

I agree. Gratitude is rather magical.

[journeynow]

1) Every day is a new day to learn about love

 

2) Strawberries

 

3) This moment

 

4) No moment has to be lived more than once

[Coconut Twin]

To list 3 things or more each day that I am grateful for over the next 4 weeks . . .

 

Good idea! I may just follow suit ...

[journeynow]

Good idea! I may just follow suit ...

 

That would be wonderful! The more the merrier!

[journeynow]

5) My cells. Every one of them working away unnoticed by me. So diligent!

[journeynow]

1) Learning from experience

 

2) Letting go

 

3) Understanding that everything is an experiment

 

4) Allowing imperfection

[journeynow]

5) Acceptance

 

6) eNAers who are open about their experiences and in the process help me understand more about mine

[journeynow]

1) Seasons

 

2) My front door

 

3) Almonds

 

4) TOTHG

[journeynow]

1) Standing in my garden and feeling the soft warmth of the morning sun on my face

 

2) Fruit smoothies

 

3) Fresh fruit galore

 

4) My home

 

5) My veggie/flower garden

 

6) My small-grip light weight kayak paddle

 

7) Friends

 

8 ) The internet

[journeynow]

9) Embracing mistakes

 

"The way we think about mistakes can play a pivotal role in how we experience life. We miss out on so much potential when we obsess about mistakes in all things. Understanding which things require perfection and when the freedom from worrying about mistakes can greatly enhance our lives is critical."

—Melanie Rothschild (artist link removed)

[journeynow]

1) My breakfast this morning

 

2) Good digestion

 

3) My morning swim

 

4) Libraries

 

5) My drafting tables

 

6) My hands

 

7) Freecycle

 

8 ) Blue skies and soft breezes

 

9) The health and safety of my loved ones

 

10) Good communication

[journeynow]

1) Maurice Sendak

 

2) James Taylor

 

3) Carl Larsson

 

4) Brave creative people who share their light

[tiredofvampires]

1) Maurice Sendak

 

2) James Taylor

 

3) Carl Larsson

 

4) Brave creative people who share their light

 

I love this journal, but I just had to share in the glory of this entry in particular.

 

Three incredible artists, two of which (Maurice Sendak and Carl Larsson) I've adored since childhood. Carl Larsson is out of this world.

 

 

 

I've found that "gratitude therapy" is sometimes the tincture for the blackest of mindstates. And I DO mean, THERAPY. Because I use gratitude that way, now! I wish this journal could be stickied in the Suicide forum, honestly. Because this is the key.

 

Unfortunately, it is not accessible to people who are already so cut off from the feeling, that they can't call it up when it's MOST needed. So in that way, it's a paradox.

 

One must be grateful for being able to have the mental space to feel gratitude.

 

It took me YEARS to feel that gratitude wasn't some kind of fanciful chant that people who were lucky in life preached as New Age gospel, because they didn't know what it was like to have so much adversity, and therefore were out of touch. And generally, I think most people do not feel helped or appreciate when you point out what they have to be grateful for, when they are stuck in great misery. It almost sounds patronizing and unacknowledging. It also takes a kind of tender humility to enter into gratitude. And there's nothing like feeling one's problems obliterate anything good to also obliterate this tender humility.

 

So I used to harbor a bit of a grudge around gratitude.

 

Now I know that it's one of the most potent antidotes to the greatest of sufferings. It's a shift a person can only make through personal discovery of letting gratitude in, and how that feels, instead of treating it with contempt.

 

Just some reflections from my own life. Once you start something like this and feel its power...there's a new respect for everything around you and a level of blindness that you don't go back to, even when tempted to forget your blessings.

 

Not taking anything for granted is up there with humor, as best medicines for me.

[90_hour_sleep]

i can't rep you for this. but i wanted to. just read it aloud...to my mom. something new that i hadn't yet read myself. strange power in words...to hear them...to physically coax the sound up and out of the lungs...and set the cords to vibrating. they change. somehow...become alive...energized...truly substantial.

 

this was an interesting moment for me, and it seems fitting that you should be the one to have provided it...and that it occurred here in this journal.

 

my mom expressed gratitude for me. she feels as though...for so long she was my teacher, and that now, i have become her teacher. of course...there's still much mutual exchange...but i appreciated what she was saying for what it was worth. gratitude. and how grateful am i to be there in that capacity...for someone. especially my own mother? i can hardly find the words to describe how that feels.

 

jn...i'm grateful for you presence here...for bringing gratitude to the forefront.

 

vampy...i'm grateful for your presence here...in so many ways. and not just here

 

thank you both.