Gratitude wrap up…

So we’re on the final day of November and I have one last catch up to do…
Today I am recording my gratitude for:
1. The sweetest dog that ever there was. I have a series of photos of her sleeping on that cushion over the years, but this is the first one of her laughing with it…I love this dog so much. The only time she ever annoys me is when people come over and she wants to get too cozy with them (and really, she just wants to stand really close to them, she doesn’t jump or bark or anything too super obnoxious)  other than that she is pretty much perfect.  Considering she was a rescue whom we knew absolutely nothing about when we adopted her, we feel like we won the dog lottery.
2. Good neighbours who I can call on at any time for anything. They are like State Farm that way. It is a lovely feeling to be literally surrounded by good people.
3. The fact that my husband works regular hours, no evenings, no weekends, no holidays. It has not always been this way and I am always so happy on Friday afternoons knowing we have two whole days to hang out together. What a luxury.
4. I am grateful that with the not so awesome things that come about with aging, there are also some wonderful things.  I love that I feel more and more confident about just being myself as I get older.  I still care far too much about what people think about me, but I do feel as if I’m moving in the right direction and it is a really good feeling.
5. I am ever so grateful for my iPhone. It has saved me so much stress, time and money to have constant access to information when I am out and about.It’s also a really great thing to have with you when you go to meetings which you may or may not consider to be a colossal waste of time. And you know that I appreciate having a handy dandy camera with me at all times.  The iPhone is a fantastic invention and so I am very grateful to Steve Jobs. (May he rest in peace)
6. I am grateful that I can stay in touch with my family and friends for free via email, skype internet and even our land-line now. When I first moved to the U.S., calls cost a dollar a minute and they were prohibitively expensive for a starving student. That made life really dark and hard especially when I was going through difficult things in a strange country. But no longer! The ease and economy with which I can now communicate with my far-flung loved ones is literally a dream come true.
7.Access to many good thrift stores, garage sales and the like which has saved us countless dollars over the years. Not to mention that I love the thrill of the perfect thrift store discovery.
8. Speaking of saving money I am grateful for a capable, smart and handy husband who has saved us tons of money on car repairs and basic household stuff. If he doesn’t know how to fix something, he looks it up online and then he does it. I am grateful for my father in law who taught him all this stuff and was a good example of sharing the work load and eschewing the concept of “women’s work”.
9.I am grateful for my faith. It is the basis of who I am. It gives my life “meaning, purpose and direction”.  I am grateful that I know that I have a Father in Heaven who loves and cherishes me and wants me to succeed. I am inexpressibly grateful for the pure love of my brother Jesus Christ which motivated the gift of the Atonement which I am so desperately need every day.
10. I am grateful for the scriptures and the fact that I can have constant access to them in so many different forms. I am grateful for the plethora of spiritual enrichment and enlightenment that is available to me and my family. I am grateful that I have had the opportunity to read the Book of Mormon several times over.  It is the most amazing book I have ever read..so much more than just a book…a living thing. I am so thankful that my somewhat cynical and skeptical heart and mind have received a testimony of its truth and power on so many different occasions and in so many different ways.
What a life-changing exercise this always is for me. I suspect that I have terribly redundant over the years of doing this, or even within the month of doing this. Many of my “gratitudes” them may seem silly or trivial, but just the knowledge that I will be accounting for my gratitude each day has made me look at my life in a very different way.
I am grateful for the concept of gratitude. . Rather than becoming mired in the misery of the illusion of scarcity (which will be evident in even the most abundantly blessed lives if that is what we are looking for), we can instead be pleasantly overwhelmed by the sheer amount of goodness, kindness, luxury and blessings that we are immersed in..just because we have chosen to focus on it.  Gratitude. It is a beautiful thing.

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