Life is fuller with conscious gratitude. In the months following Thanksgiving, I realized something was missing without Thankfulness Thursdays. Today, a revival.
I’m thankful to be alive. I’m thankful for coworkers who listen, laugh, and cry with me. I’m grateful for enormous clouds filled with thunder and rain, kind enough to wait until the children go home. I’m happy that winter is nearing an end, grateful for my husband to join me in 29 years of life, our five months of overlapping age when he stops teasing me. I’m ecstatic that next week is spring break, thankful for sore cheeks from smiling too much during the talent show auditions.
I’m pleased our interim testing is done so that I can stop bribing tired children with handfuls of popcorn for every five problems they complete. I’m happy for the realization that peeling a mandarin orange each morning is enough to make that one enigmatic child feel safe, loved. I’m thankful I pushed my tired self to go to hot yoga, the warmth and peace seeping deep into my bones, glad I called my dad after work, just to say hi.
Mostly I’m grateful that no matter how challenging my day or week, there are people in my life who care enough to listen, read, and offer a helping hand. Reminds me a little of these two trees at my family’s house. They stand side-by-side through storms and wind and heat, their branches intertwined.
oliviaobryon 
Damn. You’re picture is better than mine. 🙂
I promise that wasn’t the intention 😉
It’s the trees.
It is an awesome photo!
Thanks Pat! That was shortly before you arrived! 🙂
Beautiful post friend! Love the trees and the analogy.
Thanks, as always, for the inspiration Ashley 🙂
It may be Friday, but I am grateful to see this post on a day when I found two job openings I could apply for.
Yes, that is wonderful! I hope one of them works out! Or both! 😉
Beautiful post. I think it helps our well being when we have gratitude for things, people, etc., in our lives, it is like a magic pill that can make you feel so much better. I keep a gratitude journal (idea from Oprah), and I write down 5 things I feel grateful for that day before I go to sleep, and I find that I sleep better, and even when I have a hard time writing down 5 things, it makes me reflect and I find things.
I love that you have the discipline to do it so regularly! Another blogger inspired me to write “thankfulness Thursday” posts in the fall and I realized that it actually made me a happier person to stop and reflect once a week, even when things did not feel particularly amazing. Having a journal for this every night must do this on even a grander scale! 🙂