When I was in high school we had an assembly. It was just for girls. We went to the gym, sat in the bleachers and watched a troupe of four women. They did a series of skits about self-esteem. You know what I’m talking about? They scenes where a ‘boyfriend’ (played by a twenty something woman with a baseball cap on backwards) hit his ‘girlfriend’ and she magically learns the important lesson that “a man who hits you, needs to hit the road.”Now, don’t get me wrong. That is a useful piece of advice for young girls, but let me get to the punchline. For their finale, they did a song & dance number with beach balls, yelling ‘Gratitude is a Great Attitude’! Ever since then, gratitude has never been something I’ve taken too seriously.

But recently, I’ve been in a time of great transition in my life, and the word gratitude keeps rising to the surface. So I’ve decided in an effort to be more grateful for what I have I will start a journal of my daily gratitude.

Here are my rules (yup, I even make rules for gratitude!):

1. Chose 5 things
2. Hopefully I am grateful for things that happened that day. (Can’t always be glad for last year’s Christmas, etc.)
3. They can’t all be food or other possessions.

Well, I guess I’ll give it a try! A quick poem for inspiration!

Mantra of Gratitude

If girls stop smiling
At the malls on Saturday,
If beautiful cats on porches
And window sills
Suddenly disappear,
If orchestral music is never heard again
In concert halls among special friends,
If someone removes
My lovely Emily Dickinson;
Then I’ll sit down quite calmly
And peacefully meditate a mantra of gratitude
For the amount of time I knew these things.

Uriah Hamilton

Here’s what we’re grateful for…