Daily Gratitudes 2017

[Lessstressedhemum]

A nice, gentle thread for us all to count our blessing, to pause, breathe and be thankful for all the wee, small things that go right in our days.

Everyone is welcome, no matter our personal beliefs or faiths.

Today, I am grateful for a new year and a fresh start and for time spent with my family.x

A phone call from a friend of many years whom I don't see very often - comparing notes on our respective lives and chatting amicably for well over an hour - a reminder that support, encouragement and laughter can come from beyond my immediate circle.

I agree 100% with oliver's gratitude for the NHS, too.

Beautiful winter sunshine & frost. About to head out for a run & it's a lovely day for it.

Friends near & far.

I have come here for help. Please.
I don't feel gratitude. I don't know how to.
To whom am I supposed to be grateful? For what? To God? For the fact that I'm alive, or that I was even born.
I am not depressed or miserable. But I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be grateful for. I have a lovely dh, 2 boys and a job I really like. I have good friends. I deserve all of that. Because I am a nice person and I chose my dh carefully, and I care and value my friendships and 'work' at them, by being caring. I chose my job. If I didn't like it, I would look for another.
All the things I have, I have because I MADE them happen.

So this is why I'm not sure why I'm supposed to be grateful. Or is it that I'm looking at it all wrong? I just don't get this new 'thing' of gratitude.

I don't have the best of health. I have a medical condition since birth. Its hard to control and I feel tired most days. I don't blame anyone for that.

How come you are all grateful?

Speaking for myself, Oblomov, there's much in my circumstances that is purely down to hard work and good judgment on my part, but there are things that put the icing on the cake so to speak - see our posts above where sunny days, good health, beautiful countryside feature frequently - that I can't claim credit for. I have no religious faith, but that doesn't mean that I can't register how fortunate I am. How do you feel about having clean water at your disposal? About blue skies and sunshine?

Yes thank you optimist. I get that.
clean water. i've always had clean water. I've always had at least one job and lived in reasonable flats or places, so comfortable. The fatc I chose to do 3 different café jobs whilst at uni, allowed me to live someone reasonable. So clean water was down to me, down to my previous choices, wasn't it?

A really sunny day, walking through he park, feels lovely. I appreciated it, one lovely day in the autumn.And that is nothing to do with me. I know that. The fact there is sunshine. But, I am entitled to enjoy it. I deserve to. Don't I? its the how/or to whom you feel grateful for it, (god, or some thing or some one else) re the sunshine, that I don't get.

I know that sounds very entitled and self absorbed. But I cant seem to turn it round. Instead of focusing on myself, on how I made this happen, I'm not sure how to turn it around to be grateful TO someone else.

I think that maybe you are thinking about gratitude differently from the people who express it.

For me, gratitude is a similar feeling to appreciation and enjoyment. It doesn't create an obligation or take away from my recognition of my own efforts, but adds an extra layer of happiness to my enjoyment of things.

So if I were to feel grateful for the sunshine, I don't think 'Oooh, sunshine! I am not worthy to experience it, but get it anyway. Thank you God for the sunshine'. I think 'Yesterday, it was cold and wet, and when I went to bed last night, I expected that today would be the same. But it isn't! It's beautiful and warm and I will take a couple of minutes to revel in the pleasure of the warmth on my skin and really enjoy this lovely experience'.

For me, it's an awareness and appreciation of good things.

Of course we are entitled to enjoy the things we have or the things that are available to us. It is still nice to acknowledge & appreciate them. We may have worked had to achieve nice lives for ourselves but the opportunities that come our way are all part luck, the country we are born in, the family we have.

We live in a consumerist society, often thinking about what we want to buy next, bombarded with adverts for things we 'need'. Rather than focusing on the next thing I want I like to take time to appreciate what I have rather than what I don't have.

I don't think you need to be grateful. If you are happy and enjoying your life that is a form of gratitude in a way. For a lot of people it helps with their happiness to take time to acknowledge how fortunate they are.

Beautiful sunny day.
Time to sit back & relax. Nowhere to go and nothing that needs to be done. Just watching the DDs and enjoying time with them.

Oblomov, I think it's just about taking a couple of minutes to acknowledge and appreciate good things. It's not about faith or being grateful TO someone, more about realising how fortunate we are.
A lot of our posts are about sunny weather, line dried washing, time with family or lovely scenery and wildlife. Things that are actually out of our control a lot of the time. Other things like clean water on tap, life in a stable country etc. are down to accidents of birth in the main and the fact that we live in a mature, Western democracy.
Everyone should enjoy the things that they have worked for, that doesn't mean that we can't feel grateful that we have them. Personally, I am grateful that we are in a position to feed our family, for instance. We work for it, but I am still happy that we can do it. I suffer from 2 chronic illnesses, so I am grateful for the odd day without pain and for access to health care. I know that in many countries, health are would not be available to me.

Food and clean water
A dry day
A roof over our heads

@Oblomov17 - I think the other posters have expressed exactly what I wanted to reply to your earlier post. Gratitude (especially to the likes of godless me) is acknowledging good or pleasant circumstances that have nothing to do with our efforts, intelligence or prudence. I can heartily recommend it, and if you'd like to give it a spin I don't think you'd regret it. My suggestion would be that as you turn out the light when you go to bed you try to think of one happy, pleasant or beautiful thing that happened today without any input from you.

Winter sunshine
Effective heating to counteract the low temperatures that accompanied the winter sunshine

Thank you all.
I will indeed try that optimist, re the bed, in the dark. I know I will be able to do it because I can think of a few things already!!
I will sincerely try to see it how you others see it.

Hope to see you back here with a little list of your own soon, @Oblomov17 !

Hot herbal tea, my kids call it witchery
Another dry day
Ds2 safely back at uni

A lovely sister to babysit

Love witchery by the way

I love my witchery. I take so much medication that I try to avoid other stuff in favour of herbal/natural stuff like willow bark, echinacea, garlic and lavender. But the children just love to mock!

Winter sunshine
Line dry washing
A warm house and hot food

A lovely frosty sunny Sunday spent with family
Warm house

A good night's sleep
A cold and frosty morning
The work of my hands

Dd. Family.
Sleep.
A safe place.
A blank page.

Sleeping children, time to read before starting the day.
A safe, warm place to sleep.

A warm house
Reasonably healthy parents
Faith

Good health
Lovely sisters
A good support network

Good health
Good friends
Warm house

A warm bed
Access to pain relief
Nourishing food and unlimited clean water

A quiet day
A warm home
Good friends