Thank You!

Not long ago, I began a gratitude journal. It is in addition to my regular daily journal. It doesn’t take long every evening to list what I am grateful for that day. Sometimes I make short comments beside particular entries, but mostly the entries are just lists. It’s a really nice way to end the day, remembering the positive things. Since it’s close to the last thing I do every day, I can smile myself to sleep. Sometimes I’m just too tired to write in my daily journal, but, so far, I haven’t missed a day of writing in my gratitude journal. There has always been something to be grateful for.

November is the month of Thanksgiving and a time to reflect on what we’re thankful for, so it’s a good month to begin a gratitude journal. It doesn’t have to be fancy; mine is just a composition book with a few stickers throughout with gratitude quotes on them and “Gratitude Journal” printed on the front. That’s it. Easy and really satisfying. I date each entry, so if I go back through the journal it gives me a sense of the time frame in which the gratitudes occurred.

The following is a poem by Mary Oliver from her book, Thirst that expresses how gratitude can cause your soul to soar.

The Messenger

My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird –
equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young and still not half-perfect? Let me
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all ingredients are here,

Which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
that we live forever.

© 2006 Mary Oliver; Beacon Press, Boston, MA.

Writing Prompt:

Begin a Gratitude Journal. Start anytime, anywhere in whatever you have to write in. Write in it every day, or whenever you have something to be grateful for. I promise, it will raise your spirits and make you smile. Be sure to date your entries, so you can go back and say, “Oh, yeah, I remember that day. It was a good one.”