A Year of Gratitude – February 9, 2024

I found my gratitude in this moment this morning. I had a morning where all the little things seemed to be going sideways. Nothing of great importance, nothing of the emergency sort. Yet when a million little things go the opposite of the way you want them to, it’s difficult not to feel like your day is too.

I picked up my knitting project in the hopes that a busy mind and busy hands would save the day. Then I proceeded to discover a mistake in my knitting that couldn’t be fixed. It had to be unraveled to the point of erasing several hours of work.

Again, it wasn’t a problem of great magnitude. It could be fixed. It could be done all over again until I got it right. But I could feel the frustration creeping in, the instinct to decide that the day ahead would follow right along with the mistakes and mishaps that had already planted themselves squarely in my morning. 

And then, right on cue, the sun peeked out from behind the clouds. It started streaming in the front windows. It’s warmth woke Penny Lane up from her morning nap.

I put down my knitting to take a deep breath and reset myself. Penny relocated and put herself fully in the sunshine. A few minutes after I took this photo, she was back asleep. I picked up my knitting and kept going. Purl one, knit eight, purl one. Then I just kept on.

Eventually, I was back to the point where I had discovered my error. I was back to even. I had two choices. I could choose to be annoyed that I had wasted valuable time merely getting back to the starting point. Or, I could be glad that I had been able to fix it at all. I could just be grateful that I found myself in my warm home underneath cozy blankets with a snoring dog by my side.

And so, I did. I set my knitting down, got up from my cozy spot, and went about my day. At no point did I wish that I had chosen to be annoyed because it wouldn’t have improved my day a bit. It wouldn’t have fixed anything, but it sure would have predetermined that my day would have been a struggle.

Sometimes, it really is that simple. There’s so much that we can’t control about life, but we can absolutely control how we choose to see the little pieces of time that make up our days.

While it may be simple, it isn’t always easy. You have to work at it, choosing over and over again. I don’t get it right all the time, but I am going to just keep trying. The intention to appreciate life, to look at things from the viewpoint of gratitude has made such a difference for me and changed how I see the world for the better.

I hope that your day gave you a moment to be grateful for and that it treated you gently.

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.