A sweet friend of mine, after reading my post yesterday, led me to the blog of one of her friends who, for the last few years during the month of December, has embarked on what, imho, is a truly incredible and life changing journey.
Each year, each December, this blogger begins a series she calls 30 Days with a Grateful Heart. For the last thirty days of the year, she takes a little time each day to reflect on what she is most grateful for in her life. Some of these gratitudes are small. Some are silly and fun. Some are deeper and have incredible feeling that encompass their telling. And yet, all of them, every single one, speak directly from her heart - a heart that has learned to be... grateful.
Along her journey, she has encouraged others to participate - to take a moment or two each day the month of December, to peek into their own lives and find something each day to be grateful for. Some days this will be easy. When all is going well and life is happy, happy, happy - gratitude is abundant. But, some days it seems as if the world is conspiring against our happiness. Some days, we might wonder what in the world we could possibly be grateful for. I believe, even during these days, especially during these days, an endeavor like this can change us, bring us back to what we know to be true and ultimately, what is truly important.
William Arthur Ward once said that Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it. Go figure, I am a gift giver. My primary love language, based on the book The Five Love Languages, is gifts. I don't know if you are surprised by this, but Big J was most definitely not. So, with that being the case, I have decided, that for the month of December, this journey will be a little gift that I give to myself. A little thirty day Christmas present, if you will. You are welcome to join me, and perhaps along the way you will find that my words might also be a little gift to you, as well.
day one - my blog
Since 2006, blogging has been a savior to me. I've never been one to write in a journal, I've tried it a few times and each time, I have gotten frustrated and quit after just a few entries. Considering that I obviously do not seem to have a problem with self reflection or introspection, I think primarily for me, it was the hand-written aspect of journaling that made me unsuccessful at it, as silly as that might sound.
Most times, when I sit down to write on my blog, my thoughts are racing a million miles a minute and attempting to capture those thoughts long hand, well, you get the picture. But, when I discovered blogging, all that frustration just melted away. All of a sudden, there was a place where I could express all the feelings and emotions of my heart, in type written form. For me to reflect on, for others to share. A place where my fingers can almost keep up with the ideas swirling around in my head and clamoring to be let loose.
Besides allowing me to express myself, my blog has also brought me friendships that I treasure. Friendships that I believe without a doubt I will cherish until the day I die. Through my blog, I've met so many incredibly special people, people that enrich my life each and every day. If I never write another word, I will ever be grateful for the simple gift of those friendships.
My blog has allowed me to grow, to cry, to laugh, to wonder, to vent, to explore, to learn, and in more ways than one, blogging has allowed me to heal. Putting my most private thoughts into a public forum has at times, been awfully scary, but I have to tell you that in doing so, more than anything, blogging has allowed me to feel. To feel happiness, to feel love, to feel friendship and joy and laughter and maybe even just a teensy bit of sorrow now and then. That being able to feel proves to me, each and every day, that I am indeed, still alive, that neither my head nor my heart nor my soul, and least of all my body, are dead. And I don't know about you, but for me - that is just about all I can hope for some days.
So, yes, my blog. Today, and especially today, my heart is overflowingly grateful for my blog.
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