practising gratitude

After being under a dark cloud for a week or two, and feeling like life is hard and expensive and horrible, I set myself a challenge to name and meditate on 3 things I can give thanks for, over the next week.

[I did this on fcbk and several friends joined in with their own reasons to give thanks. It was wonderful to see and experience joyfulness and being thankful becoming easier as the week progressed.]


DAY 1: I'm thankful for
- a garden to tame and cultivate 


- my toddler having a long nap


- the heavenly mingled scents of freesia and jasmine from my mom's garden









DAY 2: Grateful for
- a new Botriver friend who was desperately ill now strong enough to walk around and keep a meal down. Thank You, Jehovah Rapha.

- functional internet

- the gentle reassuring companionship of dogs while I work at home.



DAY 3: I give thanks for
- some truly wonderful friends who's words have been like healing balm.

- for wriggly warm boyties in my bed at storytime

- clouds that eventually pass and that every morning we can start afresh













Day 4 of being mindful of the good around me :
- thankful for my two boys who are both such hilarious individuals. They make us laugh so much.
Since the very conscientious lady who sometimes cleans our house decided that our floors needed to be polished, our house has become a Charlie Chaplin style comedy. No one in this house walks - everyone charges around - and normally our floors have enough grit and grub to create some healthy traction, but now the sparkly clean well-waxed floor results in falling on bums with hilarious frequency. Our toddler is most confused by how often he collides with the floor now.

- thankful for my hub making an effort to be home in time for family supper together despite him having a very busy day.

- thankful for our 3 new chickens, and the wonderful construction of their hutch by "Odigie & Sons"








Day 5: I didn't get to my daily meditation on what I'm grateful for yesterday because Hurricane J made landfall in full force.  Having survived yesterday I'm...

- grateful for an older son to remind that even though J has snapped the top off every seedling I've planted "At least we don't we live on a faraway planet and those were the last plants EVER." True, M, we can always plant again.

- grateful that when J got hold of my pencil case while I was on the loo he chose to scribble all over the floor with pencil instead of permanent marker.
 

- grateful that J now knows that coffee mugs don't bounce and that no one cut their barefeet on the shards.
 

- grateful that J decided to wash his beloved Tedi (his one and only) just before bed and then wept for HOURS cos we wouldn't let him sleep with a wet teddy, because Tedi really needed a wash.
 

- grateful for all the opportunities to practise the fruits of Holy Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, SELF CONTROL, etc) and that my children didn't hear me swearing.
Hurricane toddler


Day 6: Easy gratitudes today
- Hugely thankful for the rain soaking our thirsty garden

- Thankful that talking things through slowly and carefully eventually sifts out the rot and brings sweetness
 

- Thankful that even although I'm a weepy mess every morning after dropping J at his new playschool, this morning he seemed very keen to be out the door, saying "Let's Go! Let's Go!"

- After the rain, a wisteria blossom emerged from a tangle of seemingly dead vines








Day 7: Thankful for
- a shift in my outlook
 

- God's faithfulness and patience with me.

- brand new baby figs bursting out on the figtree
 

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