A couple of recent blogs were a little like a back-handed compliment. I wrote a bit about something that I am really not grateful for, then twisted it around to find the gratitude and joy — the soaking, unexpected rain on a vacation; the steamy, bug-infested green of the Mid-Atlantic; the stress of long to-do lists.
We all have those things that tweak us, things that make us crazy or tick us off, things we’d really rather not deal with. How do you write a daily gratitude and joy blog and still feel the opposite of gratitude? How do you find gratitude and joy amid life’s little irritants?
When someone cuts me off in traffic, I do my best to let it go. Sure, I get a little mad, but then I turn it around. I refuse to let someone else’s rudeness ruin my day. I remind myself of one of my favorite quotes: Don’t put the keys to your happiness in someone else’s pocket.
I look around and find something that brings me joy. I find a song on the radio that gets me singing along. I look up at the sky and marvel at the contrails high above, or the screaming jets from nearby Luke Air Force Base flying over the house.
The truth is, without those bad things, the good things wouldn’t be as good. So … oddly … I am grateful for things that irk me. I can’t really say they bring me joy, but without them, I don’t think I’d realize the true depth of joy that I feel.
It’s fairly easy to come up with a daily blog about something … any little thing … that I’m grateful for. Sure, I regularly feel grateful for many of the same things like my friends and my grandkids.
I am always grateful for finding a place that has shown me what “home” is. Every single day I am grateful for my husband because he always does some little thing – he kisses my neck, he makes the bed, he makes me laugh – that reminds me how much I am grateful for him.
It takes a little practice, but if you look hard enough for the silver lining, you’ll find it.
There’s a whole world out there just waiting to be explored. Explore it with gratitude and joy.
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