Season Of Gratitude

When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around. - Willie Nelson

It's almost November, and as I have done over the past few years, I intend to devote another 30 days to thanks.  It's a cliche time of year to do this, I know.  Everyone gets lovey-dovey during the holidays. That's all well and good, as long as you continue those thoughts of gratitude, appreciation and kindness throughout the year.  I think we (as in my family) do a pretty good job of letting each other know how much we love and appreciate each other as well as our friends, all year long.  I also know that there is always room for improvement.  I believe that something as simple as being aware of our smallest blessings can do wonders for our overall outlook on life.  No, it's not going to eliminate your stress, but it might just make it a little more tolerable.  I devote my blog to gratitude during the holidays specifically for that reason - to keep my own perspective positive.  

I endure a lot of teasing about my obsessive-compulsive organizing, especially during the holidays.  I've already been asked if I am done with my Christmas shopping.  Actually, by this time of year, I normally have quite a bit done, but this year I am significantly behind.  While I am an obsessive planner (I dream to-do lists, seriously), planning ahead is not my primary motivator for finishing Christmas shopping early.  I need to get my Christmas shopping done before the Christmas music hits the stores.  I also have very little patience for crowds, but truly, it's the music that gets me.  More than once I have found myself choking back tears because Bing Crosby is bellowing out White Christmas on the loudspeaker at the mall. Forget about venturing into a Hallmark store between Thanksgiving and New Years.  That's a true recipe for disaster!  There's just something about the mixture of Christmas music and shopping that makes me horribly, I mean utterly, sobbingly, inconsolably depressed.  I can't take it.  

I don't know why I have this Christmas music induced depression.  It's been a long standing foe of mine.  I think it's some mixture of missing my grandmother, thinking about those less fortunate, feeling guilty about things I have or don't have, or worrying about things have or have not done.  Maybe it's that damn Catholic upbringing.  One time I started to cry telling Jacob that Mary was the only woman pure enough to carry God's son!  He thought I was crazy...Yeah, let's blame Catholicism. Maybe I've blocked out some trauma caused by a nun at some point in my childhood.  Sure. That's a good theory for now.

Whatever it is, I have found that I am able to minimize the impact of the holiday depression by doing a few very simple things.  The first one is to get my shopping done before the stores start piping Christmas carols incessantly.  The other is not to listen to Christmas music at home.  I might be persuaded into playing a little on Christmas day, but otherwise, it's off limits in this house!  But the most important thing that I can do is to take a moment every day and sincerely reflect on the blessings in my life.  Really, there is so much good that I could never quantify it.   I'm not talking about big things, or even "things" at all.  We have plenty of stuff and much of it is nice stuff for which I am very grateful, but what we have the most and best of is each other - friends and family, even those who have passed away have left us with life long blessings.  It's in focusing on the good in the world that the melancholy and pessimistic perspective slowly changes to one of hope, beauty and gratitude.  For me, it is only by purposefully focusing on the good that I am able to keep myself in the moment, to be aware of God's grace in my life, and to fully absorb the wonder and blessings that will someday be only a memory as well. Some day my parents will be gone and my kids will be grown. Who knows where my friends and family will be.  I'm sure that God will fill my life with other blessings I could not possibly foresee, but I also know I will miss this time, just as I miss the times already gone.  To miss times gone by is one thing, to regret not taking full advantage of the time we are given is something all together different.  I will not waste this time.  I will be grateful for each second. I will not cry in the mall! 

So...check back every day in November.  Even if I don't have something inspirational to write about, I have amassed enough quotes to inspire your own thoughts throughout the month of November.  Let it be the beginning of an early New Year's resolution - to pause each day, just for a moment, and say thanks.