12/7 I am grateful for:
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The ability to write these gratitudes everyday (that I remember) and not judging myself too harshly usually if I fail to do so
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The quiet cold mornings at the cabin
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Learning again and again to forgive myself
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Lifelong friends
This is how I began today…..shortly after building a fire in the stove and starting the coffee maker. I love my little red book. Yep, that is exactly what I scratched out in my illegible hand into my sacred little book of fire. I suggest getting one! It is another tiny nugget of wisdom that I picked up somewhere sometime (was someone so kind as to drop the idea in my ear when I was not looking for it or even aware of the soft suggestion?) There is no downside. You can afford it in time and money. I think mine is 5” by 8.25” and similar cheap ones on Amazon cost about $5 or $7 for two. Someday when my OCD allows I’ll change this CheapZen thing into an official non-profit and maybe offer free notebooks to those that need them, and then encourage folks to donate a few bucks to help offset these costs. So many ideas, so little concentration; Squirrel!
But, and this is important, make it a ritual. Make it rote. Make it sacred by securing a notebook dedicated for this purpose and this purpose only. If $5 is too much right now, and until I hopefully someday figure out how to make that limitation disappear for everyone kind enough to read these words, get a spiral notebook for under a buck at Walmart (just verified this is true). If you lack a dollar it is a great opportunity to reconnect to a friend and ask if you can borrow a dollar. If you feel you have no friends right now it is a great opportunity to be vulnerable and simply ask anyone you encounter if you can have a dollar to buy a spiral notebook to record your daily gratitudes. I can nearly promise that you can find someone. For today, that is the best that I can do.
Make this the cornerstone of your new fortress of mindful happiness. Make this the first tool you deposit into your toolbox of coping skills, for that is all we are ever doing, learning and relearning how to cope with life’s curveballs. Make dodging those curveballs fun, turn lemons into limoncello! Is it clockwise or counterclockwise (or anti-clockwise)? It all depends on your perspective.
Numerous tiny repeated steps, done each day or whenever they seem needed (backed by peer reviewed research). Build a giant toolbox of little red books and self hugs and daily meditation and self forgiveness and noticing the beauty all around you when sitting in traffic. Someday it will become automatic. Someday it will become your life, your life will be a web of gratitude . What do you have to lose?
