Daily Gratitude

I really do like Oprah Winfrey. She's got a book club. She calls attention to social issues that need to be addressed. She calls out politicians on their bad behavior. She's trying to make a difference in the world, and I can get behind that.

Oprah has put out a call for gratitude. Specifically, she wants us to start keeping Gratitude Journals. The point, as Ms. Winfrey sees it, is to:

"list five things that happened this day that you are grateful for. What it will begin to do is change your perspective of your day and your life. If you can learn to focus on what you have, you will always see that the universe is abundant; you will have more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never have enough."

This works for me.

Kizz was the one who clued me in to this campaign. She's been running gratitude posts for the last few days and it's been good to share my own five items on her comments. What I discovered today, though - when I found that quote - is that the things you're grateful for don't have to be huge, monumental things. They can be every day things. You can (and should, I think) be grateful for your toaster, or for the smell of a crisp autumn morning, or for the purr of your cat at your feet.

While I may not POST five things every day, I will certainly pause to reflect on them. Here's what I posted on 117Hudson this morning. Play along with me - let's see if, as I suspect, it really does work:



1) my gizzy (aka Sidekick II cellular phone). It has a lovely alarm feature that can be set to any volume (or simply to buzz) and wakes me very gently. Love that.


2) fuzzy socks. I bought a pair at Eddie Bauer Outlet yesterday and they're just yummy.


3) this was in my last list, posted on Kizz's site, but I'm really, really grateful for it: hot water in the shower. I'm headed up to wash as soon as I hit "log in and publish" here.


4) the new tv season. We watched the newest CSI last night (and WHY was there no mention of the whole Grissom / Sarah thing?! It's what we've all been waiting all summer for!) and have the new eps of Grey's Anatomy and ER on the TiVo.


5) my cats. I have four of them - Te, Bear, Toeses and Small One - and I love them all. With the advent of cold nights, they've started coming in before we go to bed and staying in all night. When I went in to love my sleeping babies goodnight last night, Small One was curled up with Punkin' between her knees and an enormous stuffed dog that takes up residence at the foot of the bed. We were all safely tucked in. I love that feeling.