Gratitude Sunday * January 8, 2012

~ I’m once again joining Taryn over at Wooly Moss Roots in her Gratitude Sunday tradition. ~

Gratitude Sunday is a time to slow down and remember those thankful moments that graced our week. One reason I love keeping a daily gratitude journal is because it helps keep things in perspective for me. Each Sunday, I open my journal and share some of those moments with you here. If you’d like to join in, just leave a comment!

Gratitude is powerful energy. I love hearing others’ gratitudes!

***

– Snowfall yesterday! Oh how I love the snow. (See how pretty it made the trees look this morning?) I visited my parents yesterday, and took a nap on their bed, all warm and cozy and wrapped up in fleece blankets. And when I awoke, it was snowing! I get a deep feeling of contentment in my soul when I’m warm and cozy indoors while rain or snow falls outside.

– The feeling of practically buzzing with excitement and inspiration lately! I have no idea why it has come on, but what a wonderful and jubilant feeling that is! I love it.

– Feeling like this illness has unearthed a beautiful bubbling spring within me, full of all sorts of wonderful things and creativity. Sort of like cracking open a geode — you have to take a hammer to it in order to reveal the beautiful crystalline shapes hidden inside. It’s so nice how good and bad always go together; with the good always comes bad… but perhaps more importantly, with the bad always comes good!

– Slowly getting our house cleaned up and organized and purged. I’ve felt quite good this week with good energy (that is HUGE!), and have really felt inspired to get our house looking better. I’m tired of having so much stuff in it.

– Crossing lots off the ol’ to-do list this week.

– Being outside with my hubby one night, taking photos. It was so frigid but it was really neat to be out and about together, doing something different.

– Writing a New Years Manifesto — something I’ve never done before. A manifesto is a declaration of intentions… how you want to live & be… things you want to keep in mind throughout your days, weeks, months. I like how it reminds me of the priorities I’ve set for this moment in time.

– That I don’t have cavities, but just some tooth sensitivity. A couple months ago I started getting zinging pain in a couple of teeth when I’d eat something sweet. I thought, Great, cavities are just what I need right now. So during open enrollment for insurance, I was struggling with whether to enroll in dental insurance in case I did have cavities. I happened to mention the situation to my mom the day before the paperwork would have been due, and her advice really surprised me and made me feel so much better! She said “cavities, no, you don’t usually get cavities there… it’s probably just sensitivity from receding gums. Try getting some of that sensitive toothpaste. And dental insurance… I’ll tell you… it’s really not worth it. It’s a racket, and I cancelled mine for this coming year.” So not only did that help me make up my mind about the insurance, but it saved me a bunch of money, and she was totally correct — all I needed was a $3 tube of sensitivity toothpaste!!! It’s so nice when things turn out like that.

– And in a similar vein, I’m really grateful that I followed my intuition to keep my health insurance after I quit my job nearly a year ago. That was a *very* smart thing. I sure have been usin’ it this year, oye!

– Airing out our down comforters on a warm day. And freshly washed bedding! Love that.

– A really nice day yesterday. Went out to have a late lunch with my parents, and we ended up lingering for a long time at the restaurant, listening to the great music, talking, eating, and watching the snow falling outside. It was a sweet time.

– F. hooking up some speakers that have been lying ‘dormant’ for years. I had a sudden thought to hook them up to our TV during a wonderful Gershwin concert on PBS. We needed an adapter, so yesterday F went out to get one, and by the time I came home, the house was rockin’ with THE most incredible speakers I’ve ever heard!!! What a treasure we’ve had right under our noses! And since the landlord wasn’t home, we flipped it to the Mexican MTV channel, cranked it up to a nice obnoxious level, and danced. Ohhhhh did we dance! How great that felt! I can’t wait till the day we don’t share walls with anyone.

– Some new (thrifted) wool sweaters to keep me warm!

– Thrift stores!!!!!

*****

What gratitudes have graced your week?

*****

*****