MyTarotDreams.Com ~ Blog

 
For nearly 400 years, we in the U.S. have been setting aside one day every year to give thanks for a bountiful harvest and the many blessings in our lives.  Those of you who know me know that I make it a practice to consciously be grateful on a daily basis.  Some days it is easier to express my gratitude than others, as I’m sure it is for everyone else as well.  Some days, I have to really wrack my brains to come up with something, because life can suck at times.

 
Thankfulness is easy to come by when someone gives you a gift, or a stranger in the grocery line behind you gives you the three cents you need to finish paying for your pint of Ben & Jerry’s Chunky Monkey ice cream.  It is easy to be grateful for a pay raise at work, a new car, a computer that doesn’t crash, or a wonderful vacation.

 
There are some things, some very small things that we can overlook when considering thankfulness.  Things like a baby’s laugh, a kitten’s purr, a puppy’s affection, a hot bath, a good book or movie, your favorite team making it to the playoffs, or a really good meal.

 
Then there are the really big things.  Things that are so overwhelming that they remind us of what’s truly important.  I’m talking about things like engine trouble in the middle of your flight, but making a safe landing.  Making it onto the lifeboat when your ship is sinking.  Finding out that your biopsy is negative.  Winning the lottery just when the bank is about to foreclose on your house.  The birth of your first child.

 
Whether what you have to be thankful for is a big thing or a small thing, easy to feel or difficult, take the time every day to express it.  You can keep a journal and write down the things you’re grateful for, keep a stone or a string in your pocket to remind you to be grateful, or maybe just tell someone about it when you feel it.  Being thankful and expressing it daily helps us to stay aware and to live life to the fullest.

• I am most grateful to have been given the most wonderful daughter in the world.  She is my favorite person in the whole wide world and I am incredibly blessed to have her presence my life.
• I am grateful to have reached the grand old age of 45.  It was a touchy thing once or twice.
• I am grateful for my family, who support me even though most of them don’t understand me.
• I am grateful for friends, both near and far, who love me for myself and don’t expect me to change to meet some arbitrary definition of normal.
• I am grateful to the troops, the police, and the firefighters who risk their lives each and every day to keep us safe.
• I am grateful for people like teachers, social workers, doctors, nurses, and counselors who work their asses off to help the rest of us, and in most cases get paid precious little for doing it.
• I am grateful that, while I don’t have a great deal of money, I have a roof over my head, clothes on my back, and never have to go hungry.
• I am grateful to all the teachers I’ve ever had at school.  Some were good, some weren’t so good, but I learned from all of them.
• I am even grateful to my ex-husband, who taught me how to be tough, and forced me to learn how to fight back when I need to.

 
What are you grateful for?