Things to be thankful for

I always find the year’s end to be the perfect moment to reflect on my own and with friends. I briefly dwell on my experiences and achievements, and lessons learned over the past year and I set goals for the coming year. I was talking to my friend, Rob, a few days ago about how our year went and he asked me what I was most thankful for. To be honest, I was surprised by that simple question and felt embarrassed about how little thought I give it. We talked about the importance of being thankful for everything we have, even the things we often take for granted each day. As I thought about it more, I realised that being grateful helps us to grow as positive individuals and ultimately leads the way to a ‘richer’, more fulfilling life. I found the following quote which brilliantly describes the importance of being thankful:

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity…. It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.
– Melodie Beattie

The minute I gained that insight, I picked up a pen and jotted down everything I was grateful for that I could think of. So, here we go. I’ve narrowed down my list to ten things I’m thankful for:

• My family and friends
• The wisdom and power to simply be me
• Time spent with my loved ones
• Opportunities to travel
• Good health
• All that nature has to offer
• Artistic creations that inspire
• Running water each time I turn on the tap and food in the fridge
• The brilliant minds who created WordPress and twitter 🙂
• And last but not least: LOVE: to love and be loved – there’s nothing quite like it isn’t it?