A Year of Gratitude – February 15, 2024

I found my gratitude early this morning. On its own, that might not seem notable. For me, it is. I am not a morning person. I much prefer staying up late at night than getting up early. Always have.

So, to find my gratitude early in the morning, before I have the cobwebs cleared out and am ready to greet the day ahead is noteworthy. Yet I did this morning.

I was working on a new knitting pattern, drinking my cup of coffee, and snuggled under a pile of blankets with Penny Lane. I was writing up a few changes to try in the next version of the pattern when I realized how lovely a moment it was.

I put down my knitting, took a deep breath, and decided to just sit in the moment. I wanted to soak it up, to gather the loveliness of it together, bundle it up, and carry it with me throughout the day. So, I did. I gave myself the time to just be in the moment, to sink into it fully and take it in.

Penny fell asleep while I finished my coffee. She started snoring softly. I just listened to her breathing. I concentrated on mine and felt myself relax, felt myself let go of the worry that I might not get everything done today that I “needed” to get done.

What a gift it was to let go. To tell myself that it was okay, to decide that this moment had value because things that I love were a part of it. In doing so, I told myself that I was okay, that I could relax and just let the day take shape.

It wasn’t long before I got back to my pattern work. Then I moved on to that to do list that never seems to get shorter. For every task I complete, three more seem to appear. That’s okay. I gave myself permission to accept it and that made all the difference.

I hope that your day included something you love, that you were able to catch your breath, and that it treated you with kindness.

• – – –

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.  

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.