31 Days of Gratitude

When I'm worried and I can't sleep I count my blessings instead of sheep. 

Irving Berlin

Once when I was in college, I was having a rough time.  It seems silly and insignificant looking back on it now, but at the time, I was devastated.  I felt heartbroken and betrayed, homesick and lonely for my sisters (neither of whom were at school with me at the time).

It was finals.  I had one test left then I was going to go home for the Christmas holidays.  One final.  But it seemed insurmountable.  I was, as Anne Shirley would say, in the depths of despair.

After a lifetime of learning to “Count My Blessings,” I knew what I had to do. When I should have been studying, I pulled out a notepad. I still remember it.  It was sky blue, lined paper.  I started a list of things to be grateful for.  I started with big things like family and friends and health.  But I kept writing.  I wrote and wrote and wrote.  I still have the list.  I added things like brownies, silver jewelry, colored markers.  There seemed to be an unending supply of things to be grateful for.

I realized then the restorative power of gratitude.  It brought me up by my bootstraps and reminded me that even though I was feeling rotten at the time, life was good.  As long as there were a myriad of Lipsmacker flavors and milkshakes in the world, life was OK.

Join me this month for “31 Days of Gratitude”.  Each day I will write a post to remind us all to be more grateful.  To count our blessings.  To give thanks.


I am joining a bunch of other bloggers, writing 31 Days of...