Finding Gratitude In Every Situation Kick Off - Thanksgiving 2022
Day One of my gratitude is thanking God for my home. Home is where the heart is, and I promise you, this is God's dwelling too! Happy Season! Happy Thanksgiving! The spirit of Christmas is when we touch humanity with our hearts with thanks! Let's get intentional this year and kick off this season together starting today! Especially in these strange times, we need kindness, gratitude, and God!
A little background on my reason for this call to action. It was the week before my birthday, and I started panicking about missing my mom and our new birthday routine. My father passed away in 2014, and my birthday week took on a "week of grief therapy" for both of us. In this sense, it was all about what my mother wanted to do, but I'm not complaining because she had fantastic taste! Before getting caught up in the grief space, as I was processing that she wasn't physically with me; I immediately decided to pull out some construction paper. The kind I used from my teaching days and I wrote out 56 thoughts of gratitude. I was humbly grateful for how quick of a process it was for me. Then, I poured myself a second cup of coffee and revisited each one in my heart and memory! I'm not sure why I am writing about it now, but I tucked it away to revisit it on hard days. We all have difficult days, and I was grateful for these gentle hugs in each reminder. Through this journaling experience and my reflections, I think to myself how amazing God is to provide me with love, grace, mercy, and favor. I realize life is a struggle, but I am blessed to struggle with hope and not hopelessness, thanks to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
It dawned on me that today is a perfect day to kick off sharing gratitude, November 1, 2022. I invite you to join me too! Let's start making conscientious time to think of what we are grateful for. It could be something we take for granted as ordinary, yet when we think about it, it is truly an extraordinary gift! Like running water, food, and shelter. How many of us take this all for granted?
For me, shelter is where I will kick off my 56-plus days of gratitude for the remainder of 2022. I will start by sharing that I'm humbly grateful for my home. Today marks 22 years of living here. Happy Anniversary to me! I never imagined being here this long or the sacrifices it could take to keep my home. Interestingly, since my start was a little rocky. It took about a year to feel comfortable because I was seriously missing my home and gardens in California Heights. I received some poor advice to sell that home to buy this one, but I know better now. This is why I probably want to eventually get my real estate license to help others.
I look forward to sharing and hearing your gratitude as we close out this year. together.