This year, inspired by my friend Deborah Crombie, I decided to start a gratitude journal. I've never been good at keeping a regular journal, in fact I find them regularly at the bottom of drawers. Journal 1986. Jan 1. Cold and bright. That's it.
Not the greatest journal keeper. But I have found it's a good feeling to take out the journal at the end of the day and come up with three things I'm grateful for. Not always easy some days, like the ones I've jsut spent with my husband at the Stanford medical center while he undergoes test after test and still no real conclusions about what's wrong with him.
But I have found that keeping the journal has made me more open to small blessings around me. Usually at this time of year we're in Arizona, enjoying the desert, and the other set of grandchildren. So I was disappointed that I was stuck here in California, until I worked on seeing the small blessings from being here. One of them is that the acacia bush has come into bloom. I usually miss it and it reminds me of Australia, where they are called Wattle and Australia in springtime is dotted bright yellow with wattle bushes.And when I went out to take a picture of it, look who was standing beside it. I usually see the deer as a horrible nuisance but you have to admit he's cute. And aother blessing is that the weather has been spring-like so far, and I'm not going to miss my granddaughter's 10th birthday and my hiking friends are all here, and we went to a great exhibition at the museum and are going to a murder mystery play next week. So I've nothing to be miffed about.
Holding good thoughts for you both - that you'll soon have news, and it will be good news.
ReplyDeleteI read about the benefits of gratitude journals. Maybe I can recycle one of my own abandoned diaries :)
Hope all goes well for your husband, will keep you both in my thoughts.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a great idea journal-wise - I'm inclined to pessimism, so this could kick start my buried positivity!
Holding good thoughts for you both. Keeping a gratitude journal is a great idea ~ it is also hard for me to write in a journal sometimes ~ instead, I keep a photographic journal. When I travelled, I "kept a journal" in form of sending postcards to myself with highlights from my travels.
ReplyDeleteGood post. Too often, we concentrate on the negative.
ReplyDeleteI'm grateful to have a) the ability to read and b) good books to read.
Sending out positive thoughts to you and your husband! I kept a gratitude journal for two years- each day I tried to find 5 things to be happy about. Often, the 5 things were very small- but it really put things in perspective for me. There are always some things to be thankful for. It sounds like you are finding out the same thing! Best of luck!
ReplyDelete