I am determined to make this a year of gratitude. If I get to make decisions about how my 2024 shapes up, and I believe that I do, then I want it to be a year filled with kindness, generosity of spirit, and gratitude for all the wonderful gifts I have in my life.
As I find myself walking into this new year, I am going to admit to myself and to you that the last few years have been the most difficult of my life. They’ve been filled with painful lessons and powerful disappointments. I hoped that 2023 would be the turning point towards something easier, but I was wrong. It proved to be a struggle right through to the end.
Early in 2023, I decided to start each morning by finding something to be grateful for. I shared my gratitude on our Facebook page in the hopes of both keeping myself in the routine of it and in perhaps reaching someone who was having their own struggle. It was a powerful and uplifting way to begin my days.
Somewhere along the year, life got busy and I stopped sharing my gratitude daily online. I was looking for it in my daily life, but it seemed to be more difficult to find when I got out of the habit of sharing it with you. Abandoning the routine of sharing my gratitude seemed to make it slip further beyond my grasp.
As we approached the beginning of 2024, I decided to integrate the habit of naming and sharing my gratitude into my daily routine for the year ahead. I hope that by sharing it with you here that I will keep up the routine and perhaps encourage you to do the same.
I have learned that gratitude deepens when you share it out loud even if, in this case, the out loud is by sharing it online. It also multiplies in the loveliest way when others receive your gratitude and share theirs in return.
Join in my daily gratitude if you like. Share a photo of something you’re working on, something beautiful you discovered in your day, a photo of your pet, or leave a comment about what you are grateful for today. By sharing our gratitude with each other, we can greet the day ahead with an open heart and a grateful spirit.
If you are struggling through a day where you just can’t muster up the strength to find your gratitude, that’s okay too. I have been there. I know the depth of that despair, the feeling that there is nothing to be grateful for.
Know that I am grateful that you saw these words today, on the day that you needed them most. Know that I am grateful for you, for the simple fact that you are here. You are all the reason I need to find gratitude for this day.
Warmly,
I’ll be sharing my daily gratitude right here each day and also posting it on Facebook , Instagram, and Threads. No matter where you see it, I hope that you will accept my gratitude with an open heart and that my words will help you to find your gratitude and share it here or with the people you interact with each day. The world needs more kindness and gratitude and I hope that we can work together to fill it to overflowing with equal amounts of both.
….very grateful for you, Jennifer. For speaking your truth, and having the courage to share it. with much love….
I feel the very same about you. Sending love your way.