Sloppy Thanksgiving

Happy April Fool’s!

 

For several years my standby April Fool’s Joke has been to tell people I’m pregnant. That’s not going to work out so well this year. So then I thought I would go the opposite direction and tell you I’d miscarried.

 

Except… that’s not a good joke at all. So I am going to be a fuddy-duddy and not offer anything as an April Fool’s joke. So there.

 

I would like to share something I read tonight. I’ve picked up Ann Voskamp’s book 1,000 Gifts. I have a love-hate relationship with the book. But just about the time I decide I hate it and will stop reading, she writes something that slaps me upside the head and I have to keep going!

 

I’m being whipsawed, I tell you. A push-pull relationship like no other.

 

Anyway, the premise of the book is about how to find joy and live fully in your ordinary, your everyday. Here’s what I read tonight:

“I discover that slapping a sloppy gift of thanksgiving over everything in my life leaves me deeply thankful for very few things in my life.”

Read that again. Slowly. Did it get you, too?

 

In high school I went through a time when I was really down. During that season I found listing my blessings changed my attitude; for years I’ve advocated writing thank you notes as a way to move yourself out of a bad mood.

 

But despite having actually experienced the changes a thankful attitude can create in my life, lately I’ve found it easier to throw thankful words at my life than actually pause to mean them.

 

I’ve slapped a sloppy coating of thanksgiving over my life. And, as a result, I haven’t found joy in much of anything.

 

I’m taking up Voskamp’s challenge of writing a list of 1,000 gifts in my life. So far I’ve been working on it for three weeks and I have 54. (Yeah, I have a ways to go before I reach 1,000. I won’t give up.)

 

Here are five of the things on my list:

 

1. Heated car seats on freezing winter mornings.

2. Coca-Cola

3. My husband’s consistency, Uno’s logic, Dos’ exuberance, Tres’ quirky smile, a healthy pregnancy

4. Internet connection

5. I have enough money to buy groceries

 

I find that writing my thanks down, then re-reading them, is lifting my spirits. You need to try it, too!

 

A recent study found ‎6th-7th graders who kept a gratitude journal for only three weeks, had an increased grade point average over the course of a year. Now, I’m not telling you I’m going to be testing you on anything… but if this can help kids who are buzzing with hormones so loudly they walk into walls gain a better perspective… maybe it’s worth a try?

 

What are five things you’re genuinely thankful to have in your life?