A month of gratitude

My posting here has been sporadic since my sons were born in January, which is to be expected.  I have far less free time these days than at any other time in my life.

I have found, though, that I enjoy writing here.  It's therapeutic for me, in a way, just to get my thoughts and feelings out on "paper," and when I get comments, that can be therapeutic as well.  So I want to get back to writing here more regularly.  Most of my posts are quick and dirty, rather than taking me hours to write and edit, so the time commitment really won't be that much.

I thought one good way to get back into the habit of posting regularly would be to do a daily post of things for which I'm grateful, and what better month than November, when we celebrate Thanksgiving Day here in the U.S., to do that?  I've done similar things before on this blog (one example here), but it's been a while, and I do believe in the positive effects of gratitude on mood and mental outlook.

When I was in my late 20s, single and childless, I actually managed to keep a gratitude journal for most of a whole year.  I still have it, and when I've looked backed on the things I've written, I smile.  I think it's always a good thing to pause and reflect on the things for which I am grateful on a daily basis.  Not just the big and obvious things, like my sons or good health, but the little things that happen in the course of going about living life.

Would anyone care to join me in this endeavor?  I would love to read your posts on this topic as well as sharing the things for which I'm grateful each day.

It's not November yet, but I'll go ahead and share something that happened to me for which I'm grateful.  I had a dental appointment this morning--just a routine cleaning--and on my way to the office, I stopped by the Star$$ drive-thru for my daily morning caffeine fix.  As I was pulling up to the lane for the drive-thru window, another car was pulling up around the same time.  The other driver was a little more assertive than I and pulled into the lane in front of me, although if we'd both maintained the same speed we'd been driving as we'd entered the parking lot, I would've been ahead of her in line.  No big deal, I just shrugged it off.  (I don't usually sweat that kind of small stuff; road rage isn't one of my problems.)

When I reached the window to pick up my caffe mocha, the barista told me that the woman ahead of me had paid for my coffee "because she cut you off."  Wasn't that a nice thing for her to do?  So I was grateful for saving the $4.50(!) I'd been prepared to pay for my morning coffee.

Happy Thursday!