Gratitude and Thankfulness

Linda Bittle
Linda Bittle Posts: 1,518 ✭✭✭✭✭

I've made a daily practice of keeping a gratitude journal for over 12 years now. It started out in a notebook, and was something I learned while a student at Wilderness Awareness School. Some years ago, I started listing 3 things I'm grateful for each evening on my Facebook page. I've been surprised at how many people tell me that they look forward to it each evening. I don't even know many of them!

Even on the most challenging day, I can come up with 3 things...sometimes it's only that I woke up breathing that morning, no new bills came in the mail, and my car started when I needed it to.

Most days, it's much easier. I try to think of someone I'm thankful for, some nature thing that I saw or heard that made me happy, and some personal little bit from my day to share.

Today, it will be for my good landlords, who replaced a broken down pellet stove with a propane heater. It's such a blessing to not have to order a pallet of pellets this week, then move the fifty - 40 pound bags to the shed so that I can drag them in as I need them. At almost 61, that was becoming too difficult for me to safely do.

I heard the chickadees in the treetops when I walked my little dog this morning. They are such cheerful birds that I always smile when I see or hear them.

And, I'm thankful to have moved a bunch more of the wood chip mulch to the path between my fruit trees. I'm almost done with that chore!

As Thanksgiving approaches, are you more aware of things to be thankful for? Or do you notice them every day?

What is one thing you are thankful for right this minute?

Comments

  • ines871
    ines871 Posts: 1,283 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Similar to how you too live, in our home it is 'Thanksgiving every day' as Thanksliving...

    Most of mortality I've lived alone, & during those way too many years, I also kept a Thank you journal. Yet

    Now we share with each other: our individual thankfulness that Blesses... us each in countless... ways every second of the day.

    Also beyond Thankful we are blessed together as 1, & even at 55, or 80, or 100+ us 2 can remain as God's individual little child.

    Too am happy w/ countless friendships I can share... with other kind souls, like you @Mary Linda Bittle ~ Happy Thanksgiving


  • merlin44
    merlin44 Posts: 426 ✭✭✭✭

    The day my husband ended this life's journey and began the next, I was thrown into what seemed to be an endless abyss. A student of the Spiritual for many years, I looked to that which I had read and learned for stability. Much of that path, I had shared with him. One particular quote from Eckhart Tolle kept coming to mind during that time of chaos "Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at this moment". So much as a shy child would, I began peeking out at this new life that appeared to have been thrust upon me. Having faith in the Universe, embracing my reality, moment to moment, I find myself looking round and accepting this life is what I NEED. In doing so, my heart is so filled with gratitude. Days are filled with moments of wonder at the silence of this mountain, the delightful company of the many critters I share this life with, the miracle of Mother Earth's natural rhythm....I accept the sadness felt with no longer having my husband's physical presence but KNOW he is always nearby. Now three years past, it seems at least once a day, I find myself looking up at the infinite sky and offering thanks for this experience.

  • Merin Porter
    Merin Porter Posts: 1,026 admin


    I love this thread! I feel like being grateful is just about the most important thing a person can do to stay whole, hale, and healthy! Right now, I'm feeling grateful for my kids, my good-hearted husband, fast Internet, and fall weather. :)

  • ines871
    ines871 Posts: 1,283 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Like Merin, I too am Thankful for a very generous & good-hearted man/soul.

    Too, after having a very generous income lost, - I am thankful that I can work to pay for our Basic bills for as long as I need to.

    (And since I tell my mind/body & everybody else "I will stay 8 forever", my body not knowing what is 'age', Complies... LOL)

    And tho yet more food-Foresting & continuing Rainbows plants died, &/or were stolen, God willing there will be another Year in which to plant more again.

  • Linda Bittle
    Linda Bittle Posts: 1,518 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Tonight, I'm thankful that there's only 1 Monday per week! Good grief, elementary school kids are ... exuberant.

    I'm thankful for my little dog and cat, who greet me at the door at the end of the work day.

    I'm thankful that there's no good reason why I can't just go to bed right now. Everyone is fed and the dishes are done. I have a book awaiting.

    good night, all.

  • ines871
    ines871 Posts: 1,283 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November 2019

    TODAY being Veterans day, I want to THANK EACH US soldier for their Selfless service

    with this famous poem: It is the Soldier

    " It is the Soldier, not the minister

    Who has given us freedom of religion.

    It is the Soldier, not the reporter

    Who has given us freedom of press.

    It is the Soldier, not the poet

    Who has given us freedom of speech.

    It is the Soldier, not the campus organizer

    Who has given us freedom to protest.

    It is the Soldier, not the lawyer

    Who has given us the right to a fair trial.

    It is the Soldier, not the politician

    Who has given us the right to vote.

    It is the Soldier who salutes the flag,

    Who serves beneath the flag,

    And whose coffin is draped by the flag,

    Who allows the protester to burn the flag."

    Charles M. Province


    JBLM is close by us, and for 20 years EVERY soldier I can ID by their uniforms I say this to " May I please THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for YOUR SERVICE to our country, the United States of America. - Because you see, it was the US ARMY that in Germany rescued my family from Hitler's concentration hells. - And tho you were not personally involved, yet you are willing to again GIVE YOUR ALL for others. And for this you should be Honored every single day. Thank you so much "

    And then I ask to HUG each 1, whether man or woman, & they all say Yes. - And you know there are tears... on both sides.

    And you (reading this post) can not see the tears streaming... down my face as I share this message. -

    I am full of Thanks for The Pledge of Allegiance


  • ines871
    ines871 Posts: 1,283 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November 2019

    Further I am thankful that (unlike sadly many others) today we were able to eat... & Healthy food at that.

    Breakfast was scrambled eggs cooked in Coconut oil, & topped with our Herbs especially Parsley. (I crave parsley about daily).

    Lunch was (left-over) Sweet potatoes & Broccoli & chicken, with favorite Herb tea.

    Supper was "Yummy 8 Veggie-soup" it had everything (but the kitchen sink), in it. I am thankful, additionally for Healthy food.

  • ines871
    ines871 Posts: 1,283 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Today I continue being thankful

    that MUSICIANS like Lee Greenwood write unifying songs such as "the American Patriot album [in 1992] -- that album was a way to embrace "God Bless the USA" with all other American songs, including "God Bless America," "America the Beautiful," the National Anthem ... even the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." The American Patriot album really was the one that solidified "God Bless the USA" in a time capsule, if you will, for all time.

    Too, I continue thankful for my family AND my job, that I better RUN to right now, so I will be "ON time". - Enjoy a Safe & Happy day, Everyone! 🙂

  • JodieDownUnder
    JodieDownUnder Posts: 1,483 admin

    What a wonderful post. I also practice my gratitude compass on a daily basis, it's good for my soul and makes me smile inside.

  • shllnzl
    shllnzl Posts: 1,820 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I am grateful for my beat-up, aching body. I put it to the test by blindly going into a fitness facility that offered a free introductory class. If I had known how hard the workouts were, I never would have done it because I am almost 67 years old. The common thought is that a person can get too old for certain activities. When I made it through the workout without too much trouble, I had hope for the future.

    I give thanks that my body will still do its best when given the chance. I just have to be smart enough to ask. I am asking at least twice a week now and getting slightly more limber and more fit.

  • Linda Bittle
    Linda Bittle Posts: 1,518 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @shllnzl Good for you!

  • ines871
    ines871 Posts: 1,283 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November 2019

    Hi ! - at "almost 67 yrs old" you're my younger🤩sister, yup. - Goody, we can Cheer each other ON in our Growing more Youthful by the minute/hour/day organization 🤗Yippee !!

    You read here months ago how docs wanted to bury me of "leukemia, & heart-failure, & big hole in R-lung, & skeleton-made-of-swiss-cheese" etc, yet my response ? = Apparently God is putting me on Notice: You want to learn to Iceskate, right? Now is as good a time as any. Lace up & get going !..." - And I did. And like everyone else, promptly (fell down... None of us keeps track tho, as don't get no medals for falls, & too best learn how to JUMP back up quick. Or might leave with a few fingers gone). - Been way too long since I passed my 1st two classes; have 4 to 8 more to go before can sk8 officially Freestyle (instead now just getting 'permission'. )

    Now that new roof is on house, next are 4 windows Replaced, & then I get to go back to this another of my passions. And Core-strength,+Pilates+Ballet classes will help get the other 9 lbs. off too. - Hey @shllnzl as a kid did you ever do the splits ? decade ago, got within 8" of floor; yet today can just do 2/3 of these 12

    Are some of these ^ that you also practice in your "work-outs" ?

    Don't believe in 'work' (in or out). I just wanna have fun... Remember we're gonna CHEER each other ON... Okay?

    EDIT: forgot posting the (left to Right, & Top to bottom) I can do today: #1+3+6+8-11

  • shllnzl
    shllnzl Posts: 1,820 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @rainbow I had planned to do yoga as flexibility is my main problem. However, the club I attend does a pretty awesome whole body workout. They try to get every muscle in use.

    I am still trying to stretch out my stiffness at home. I have a yoga workout on DVD, may get to that one someday.

    Amazing that you are doing so much. Seniors encouraging me at the club gave me incentive to join as they were keeping up with the young ones.

    Our bodies are amazing when we give them what they need, like real food and exercise.

  • ines871
    ines871 Posts: 1,283 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November 2019

    @shllnzl - in keeping with this "thank you" discussion topic, let me share that I am sooo greatful that I honestly+Wholeheartedly+quite literally live young 😂 so

    re "Amazing you are doing so much": Not amazing at all. And as far as being Exceptional, got 2 current hiccups: my broken/twisted Left shoulder+wrist, but I don't let them stop my goals like greater core+thigh-Strength mainly, as rest of Flexibility 82% for my Ose, & am determined to get the split. -

    Ready 4 the secret ? Live... with all the passion+energy of a shorter child. And the more you practice & rehearse this in your mind, with all your heart, the more NATURAL it becomes. Simply as a forever-being know you're Youthful...,+ You will feel Amazing 🤗... understand? Okay hopefully you like my pep-talk for today. - Your turn next :)

    & 1 more thing: Never let anyone fool you into living less.

    EDIT: Those ^ 4 fractures I got gardening... No skating fractures, ever.

  • shllnzl
    shllnzl Posts: 1,820 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @rainbow I am living whatever time I have left on my terms. I am my quirky natural self.

    I am grateful that I have enough retirement money to live a moderate lifestyle.

    I am childlike in some ways: I still have a small collection of stuffed toys (the stuffed birds are for interaction with my parrot); Christmas is still my favorite holiday with all its wonders; and I love cartoon movies, at least the ones with some adult content, like Pixar movies. (Cindarella was a favorite of mine as a child, I can't take it as an adult.)

    I am interested in almost everything. I appreciate all of you that have so much joy and knowledge to share.

  • ines871
    ines871 Posts: 1,283 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Hi @Mary Linda Bittle - I don't know if you can tell the Love & peace & joy > inside my little-Child heart < needs to be Able to find expression.... It just BUBBLES up & spills out Spontaneously..., like it just did above. Which draws certain people to me because they genuinely LOVE me for it.

    However there others who it drives them to distraction, as they say "ACT YOUR AGE already !!, darn it"). - And to those people I say "guess what: I AM acting my age, LOL - I Believe STAYING YOUNG in soul & mind & body, is not a Genetic-defect, or weakness, or a fault, or something to be endlessly corrected; but in fact a positive Empowering resource to be Celebrated, & Encouraged & Championed & Enjoyed.... by ALL. - Do you agree, @Mary Linda Bittle ? So with this in mind, Thank you for letting us share... in your discussion what... Each of us is Thankful for. - Hopefully whatever it is is Okay with you. 🙂

  • Linda Bittle
    Linda Bittle Posts: 1,518 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @rainbow It's all good with me!

    We are all such individuals, and the things that make us happy are so different. And all valid!

    This evening I am grateful for Thursday evenings. My work week at school is done (we go 4 days a week here), and tomorrow is a bookkeeping from home in my sweatpants day, so I get to sit down!!! And my little dog and cat like having me home, too.

    I got to work from home for almost 3 years, and I so very much want to do it again. The school custodian job pays the bills, but there's little left to put towards things I'd like to do - like owning a house of my own! It's also 6 blocks from my front door, so I don't have to drive much.

    I'm also thankful for the gift of some tasty snack crackers that a teacher gave me this week because she appreciates the work I do,

    And I'm thankful for catching the distant call of the Great Horned Owl tonight! I only hear them (a pair) in the winter. And it's such a cool thing to have them around - so long as my 9 pound dog stays close after dark!

  • blevinandwomba
    blevinandwomba Posts: 813 ✭✭✭✭

    Great idea @Mary Linda Bittle

    I am thankful that my sister is visiting us for a few weeks. I hadn't seen her for 2 1/2 years.

    I am thankful that the apple crumble I made tonight, despite multiple changes to the recipe and some unintentional flubs, turned out edible! Actually pretty tasty. I'm a decent enough baker when I pay attention, but when I don't...

    I am thankful for Thanksgiving coming shortly, both because I love the holiday and because I will see several of my cousins. I was told a week or two ago to not expect any of them to come- that reversed a few days ago!

  • ines871
    ines871 Posts: 1,283 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Today as nearly every day since May I am thankful to have met in cyberspace Wonderful & Caring people in Marjory's group. Thank you for making me feel welcome for the most part, & for your many kind suggestions, & "being friends" as much as this is possible online.

    Too, for over a year I've needed a pair of work shoes for my job. (I gave up on Goodwill as they got too expensive decades ago & the shoes at Value Village last month which I loved, started curling my big toes. - Well, today this little voice said "Go back to Goodwill" so reluctantly I did; & guess What ! - Not only did they have tennis shoes in the Right size that I immediately knew were mine, they are new NIKE's with a $15 tag; so I asked if there's anyway they could be Discounted more ? And she said "Today is your lucky day, as only today the Green tags are $1.99 oh my stars LOL - Now I've spent an hour trying to find you a picture, but have given up, save to say they are mostly grass-green w/ 4 holes under the heel prolly for cushioning? And they are soo warm. a quadruple Thanks.

    And I found some medium Blue & Brown eggs also on sale where the hens get added Paprika & Marigold in their food which makes the yolk a dark Amber colored. They taste really good. Do you know about that?

  • Deborah Dailey
    Deborah Dailey Posts: 8 ✭✭✭

    I have so much to be thankful for. Today I am glad to be finally seeing the end of pain from an injury from several months ago, with a renewed confidence that at 66 I can still heal and live my life forever young. I am also thankful for friends I have never met in person who freely share information and encouragement on forums such as this.

  • SuperC
    SuperC Posts: 952 ✭✭✭✭

    Right this minute, i am thankful for my sight, the ideas in my head, being able to successfully share these with you, enjoying the heat blowing on my legs as sitting here doing readings furthering my development on wine-food education. Enjoy with love

  • ines871
    ines871 Posts: 1,283 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Thanks to @teachercaryn mentioning her thanks 'right this minute', I too want to say How full of Thanks I am for my sight. Visual is my primary rep-system, it is so strong that when I close the cupboards or drawers etc, & I no longer plainly SEE what's there, I say "gotta buy more of ..." (lol)

    Too, am ever thankful that we have had a new roof for a year, & plenty warm clothes, & cozy warm bed, such that not having the house heated in PNW winter is Doable.

    And I continue thankful our 15 year old 153,000 mile car still works, & I'm earnestly hoping the Walmart "Seafoam" stuff will clean the injectors so the Mileage will get back to 350, instead of the 200 it is now.

  • Linda Bittle
    Linda Bittle Posts: 1,518 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Tonight I'm thankful to be home from a long day at school. The children were...exuberant. I don't know how the teachers do it.

    The hamburger I put in the refridgerator to thaw did not, and so I'll make spaghetti tomorrow. Thankful for a bowl of cold cereal instead, and some cashews, and I'll have a leftover biscuit with butter and plum jelly in a minute. Not having to get supper on the table for anyone but myself means that I can be creative when things don't go as planned.

    Thankful also, for all of you!

  • ines871
    ines871 Posts: 1,283 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Today I am thankful, as every day.

  • ines871
    ines871 Posts: 1,283 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Were us 2 to thank God for all blessings... we would be doing it every waking moment... Wait, this is largely how we live.

    (Not exactly when I forget myself paying attention to others who haven't learned about karma, yet).

    Then I need to remind myself what the business at hand is so I can get back to peacefully & joyfully live...

  • Linda Bittle
    Linda Bittle Posts: 1,518 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Today I am thankful for continuing fall weather. That's supposed to change by Sunday, so I am trying to get outside with the dog and to finish up the yard work (getting the mulch pile all moved so I can park in the shed).

    Sammy and I had 2 short walks today! And I got an hour's work done. Almost finished. Thankful!

  • ines871
    ines871 Posts: 1,283 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November 2019

    @Mary Linda Bittle - you serve as an encouragement... to others incldg. me. As you report how you get the garden Ready for winter, am continually behind. Every week I try, but then somebody else needs my help, so I drop the garden, & help yet another person. - Friends tell me "whatever Fruit-bushes & trees you lose, we will help you get new, & it will be okay". They know I am giving each day everything I have, but unless it's 80+% it is never enough. - By sharing what you are doing, you are encouraging other people also put their gardens to bed, so Thank you 🙂