There are a lot of reasons to be reflective this time of year. The year is winding down; just a little over a month is left in 2018. The holidays are upon us and in the ever more frantic swirl of holiday activities, I find that as I age, I am also taking more time to stop and look at where I’ve been.
This year has gone by in a flash. I don’t know anybody who hasn’t mentioned that at least once this year. I look at my calendar with all the days carefully crossed out in the previous months and I wonder where it all went. I only remember a couple of days clearly, the rest are a blur of work commitments, sewing commitments and housework. Ok so maybe I exaggerate a tad, but I’m doing so to make a point. In order to be grateful, there needs to be an awareness of things qualifying for gratitude. If I can’t remember what all happened this year, how am I going to keep a grateful outlook on my life.
As humans, I think we have a tendency to remember the bad things more readily. Anyone else still easily call to mind those cringeworthy memories from 7th grade? Yup, me too. Like they just happened yesterday. I guess this goes back a long time in human history. I mean if you can’t quickly bring to mind the horror of a wild animal attacking your village, you will find it difficult to be wary of future encounters with that animal. I’m not saying my 7th grade classmates were animals, but in our modern society, the dangers we face are more likely from those around us and our daily situations, as opposed to the dangers that faced prehistoric man.
I’ve also noticed that a large part of my daily life is spent checking for things I’ve missed. At work, what have I missed on my action plan or my check list. At home, what have I missed getting into the laundry or chores around the house, or bills that need to be paid. Our lives are focused on what is missing and remembering what is missing.
It is not a natural thing to immediately pull to mind memories that are really good, or to look at the list of things we have in front of us, yet those are the seeds of gratitude. For a while I kept a gratitude journal. It’s an easy enough thing to do, once a day write down 3 things for which you are grateful. They can be anything – big or small. Some days I was grateful to wake up without a headache. Other days I was grateful for friends. Every day I made myself write down 3 things, so that in addition to all the negative lists I have to keep going, I was actively keeping a positive list. I need to go back to this practice. It is easy enough to fit in my bullet journal, and I find the act of writing with a pen and paper really makes my brain sit up and take notice of that information.
This holiday was based on the Pilgrims having food for the winter. I’m thankful for the roof over my head and food on my table. I’m thankful for my friends, be they local or electronic in nature. I’m thankful for fabric and yarn and color and a chance to smooth my soul with things that I create. I’m blessed a thousand times over, and I need to remind myself of that every day, not just once a year.
