Gratitude - For this day let us be truly thankful

I have been floundering about what to write today and then I realized that this is Friday and I am having lunch with some of my special friends so it is going to be a great day. And that leads me to gratitude.

It’s been nearly ten years since I first read “Simple Abundance” by Sarah Ban Breathnach and learned about the gratitude journal. I had heard about the gratitude journal prior to reading the book but Sarah really opened up the purpose of writing the gratitudes. I started the journal way back then and have been writing in it consistently (though not daily) ever since. I would say that it was about three months before I started to see some patterns in my writing and with a little analysis I realized that I was a joyful person every morning. As I’ve mentioned before I am a natural born optimist and combined with being a morning person this seems to have made me into a very happy and joyful person. Most of the time. And at least that is how the day starts. As things occur during the day I can naturally turn sour, grumpy, miserable, unhappy and what have you. But at least things always start out on the right foot.

And for that I am profoundly grateful.

But the real reason I thought it would be nice to write gratitudes for the blog is that I would like my audience to think about their own circumstances and what they are grateful for every day. Let’s face it, we do live in a great country that is safe and secure in a way that few other countries are. As much as I sometimes lament that Canadians are too passive it is rather nice to know that there isn’t going to be a riot on 8^th Avenue in the course of my work day. It’s good to know that I won’t be robbed on my way to work every morning. It’s good to know that there is plenty of food choices at the food court or in the restaurant that I may visit over the lunch hour. It’s good to know that the person riding up with me in the elevator, even if they aren’t a morning person and doesn’t say good morning, they are not hostile towards me.

Have you noticed how frequently your office conversations are generally of a negative nature? Why is it that we seem to get pleasure out of griping about our work situation when the truth is that we, generally speaking, enjoy our jobs, our co-workers and even our office environment? I’m as guilty as everyone else in this department and yet the truth is that I love my job. I think I have a great office environment, in fact, we are spoiled to death in our office. We get free fruit, cookies, snack bars, cheese and other things besides coffee, tea and juice. Our furniture is new, ergonomically correct, and hey, I have a window office! Can it get any better than that?

So why do we complain? Because then we can relate to our fellow workers. For some reason people hate an eternal optimist.

But let me tell you, I am truly grateful that I am an optimist, I am a positive person and I am a grateful person. So there!