My friend Nona, the Everyday Yogini, has started a 5-minute gratitude list. Every Saturday, she writes a list of what she is grateful for. I love the idea. While on a daily basis you can hear me saying things like “I’m so fortunate,” or “we’re so lucky,” or “aren’t we blessed?” I rarely take the time to actually address what it is that I’m so fortunate to have, what we’re so lucky to be and what exactly makes us so blessed. So I’m officially on board with the gratitude list. Especially around this time of year, Hanukkah and Christmas rolling in, gift lists to be written, requests to be put out there. It’s just so easy to get swept up in the wants and the needs and forget how good life is, in all it’s simplicity. And so, this is my 5-minute gratitude list:
I’m grateful for my daughters, who teach me every day what it means to be. To just be.
I’m grateful for my husband. We have a good thing going here.
I’m grateful for my home. It’s warm and inviting and cozy and usually smells of good food, for which I am also grateful.
I’m grateful for my in-laws – the whole enormous bunch, for giving me the large, rowdy and all-around awesome holidays and special events that I dreamt of as a child.
I’m grateful for the general good health of my family. Although Pea is under the weather right now and Coco has had a runny nose for what amounts to most of her short life already, they are healthy, strong and able little girls.
I’m grateful for the new and wonderful friends I’ve made – the sincere connections I feel I’ve established – in the months since starting this blog.
In a nutshell, if you were to ask me 10 years ago where I’d be right now, on this day, at this very moment, I don’t think I would have said here. Sitting at my computer in my little office, listening to the sounds of my oldest daughter laughing in the bathtub, my husband singing silly and nonsensical songs to her, my other daughter asleep in her crib for the night, all snuggly and sweet, my beloved pooch at my feet…
It’s a good place to be and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else in the world. Who knew life could be this good?
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I really like that idea too…consciously thinking about what you’re thankful for. Sometimes I like to make lists of “things I definitely like”…it feels good in an uncertain world to be sure about some things.
This is beautiful! Just last night, my partner (Mike) and I were sitting by the fire in comfy chairs. Our pup was between us as we read. I looked up and said, “This is the perfect life.” It really is the simple things, isn’t it?
I love your list for the week… I hope Pea feels better in the next day or two. Isn’t there something about illness that makes the goodness of our lives seem larger than life?