A Year of Gratitude – February 12, 2024

It’s the week of Valentine’s Day. I know that makes this a wonderful week for some of you and a painful week for many. The world wants us to focus on romantic love, the kind that knocks you off your feet. But everyone doesn’t have that sort of love in their lives this year which means that framing of the holiday leaves out far too many people.

I’d much rather focus on celebrating this week by loving each other, loving the people in our lives, and loving ourselves. I’d like to mark the week by celebrating in a way that involves everyone who wants to participate. We’re all worthy of love, of celebrating Valentine’s Day in our own way.

So, I’m going to focus my daily gratitude this week on the sort of love that we choose. If you choose to love something about your day, about your life, you’re also painting it with gratitude. Really, love and gratitude aren’t very different from one another.

To celebrate Valentine’s Day, I’m going to share something I love with you each day this week. They fill my heart with joy not because they have anything to do with romance. I’m grateful for each and every one of them.

I hope that you’ll share something that you love and that doing so will fill you with gratitude. I also hope that the people around us will feel that gratitude and love spill over onto them. That’s the sort of Valentine’s Day week I’d like to celebrate.  

I’ll start with something that fills my heart with love and joy every single day of the year. I am beyond grateful for this old farmhouse and the family it provides shelter to. The people who live under this roof are the people who give my life meaning and my days purpose. They help lighten my load every day. They celebrate my triumphs and help to lift me up when life seems too difficult. They are the very best sort of people and I am so lucky to spend my days with them.

I am also grateful that this old house somehow connected me to you, to this group of people who gather online each day. I never could have imagined all those years ago when I wrote my first blog post that so many of you would care to read what I wrote each day. It’s such a gift to spend my days sharing part of my life with you.

Here’s to love and gratitude. I hope that your day included both and that there was a bit of kindness sprinkled in for good measure.

This post is part of our A Year of Gratitude Series. You can find the introduction, inspiration, and entire year’s gratitude’s posts here.