A few days ago I started a gratitude experiment. Just the simple, daily practice of writing down 3-5 things I'm grateful for between each sunrise and sunset.
We were on vacation the other week when I was hit by allergies. My nose was
running 24/7 like a stuck tap and my head felt like a bowling ball. Ugh! There really comes a point where the only solution is to stuff two pieces of tissue up each nostril. So there I was, on the couch after a long
day of sneezing with said tissue stuffed into my glowing nose. Then the hubby looked up from his
iPad to say something. I gave him a stony gaze, daring him to make fun of
me. And instead of laughing, he broke into a cute smile and said, ‘You’re so
pretty.’
Ha! I’m forever grateful for him. I wouldn’t have minded much if
he had made fun, but saying that instead with 100% 90% authenticity made me laugh and love
bubbles pop up from my head.
Gratitude is more than remembering to write that thank-you card, or thanking someone for emptying the dishwasher. It's a total reframing of our perceived realities. Even though I’ve not been doing it long, my mood has already lifted and
I notice the little joys as they surface.
Yesterday was like a gratitude gift day. OK, so I've been trying to pin down a lawn company to
do our lawn for three weeks. Three weeks. I’ve left multiple voice messages and emails with
multiple companies, had responses once and never heard from them again. What ridiculousness is this? Then yesterday, while I was on the phone to a neighbor about approved paint colors,
she mentioned she’d just had a baby and her teenage son cuts lawns. For real? A new friend and an easy, cheap lawn service! Heaven high-five. And that was just the
tip of the blessing iceberg that day.
This is part of the gratitude experiment I’ve been wondering
about – when you’re living a more grateful life, do more good things come to
you? In her Simple Abundance – Daybook of Comfort and Joy,
Sarah Ban Breathnach appeals us to conduct our own gratitude experiment. “Why? Because you simply will not be the
same person two months from now after consciously giving thanks each day for
the abundance that exists in your life. And you will have set in motion an
ancient spiritual law: the more you have and are grateful for, the more will be
given to you.”
With so many things to worry about, my overarching ones at
the moment being about the birth and beyond – will I be a good mother? Can I really
do this? – it seems like a good time to plug harder into this gratitude stuff.
I have 41 days until my due date, and I’ve committed myself
to the gratitude experiment every day leading up to it. Who knows what difference it
might make, and how it might set me up for the long road of sleepless nights
and other discomforts?
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