Living Abundantly

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If you read my post last Friday you might have an inkling of why my heart feels tired and grouchy lately. So, last night I sat in bed and wrote a list of how I could nurture a more grateful heart. Some of the things I wrote down include:

• Show gratitude for Jeremy by being nice to him, recognizing his strengths, and going out of my way to make his day better. 
• Show gratitude for my house by overlooking its flaws and taking better care of it. Spend some time cleaning and trying to make it feel like a place where a happy family lives. 
• Show gratitude for my health by making nutritious choices and exercising. What a privilege it is to choose to be healthy and what a great time of year to enable that privilege. 
• Show gratitude to my children for the things they do right. The majority of our interactions involve me telling them what to do next. Homework. Brushing teeth. Turning the volume down on the television. But maybe this is a good week to tell them all the things they are doing right.
• Find something that makes you happy every single day. Some days you might have to dig a little. You have to leave the laundry where it is and bake pumpkin bread instead, or you have to stay up late on purpose watching The Amazing Race with your spouse. It is easier to go to sleep feeling grateful when you can identify something in your day that made you glad to be you. 

Thanksgiving is around the corner, but it isn't too late to slow down long enough to notice the many private, personal ways in which you are living abundantly.