Harvesting Gratitude

This is not my original idea, but I will share my original thoughts about it.  Recently I read about a creative way to help focus on gratitude in our busy lives of constant distractions and obligations: save a daily thought in a Mason jar of something you are grateful for that day.  At the end of the year, read your dailies and recall the many blessings of the year. I really like this idea as a tangible and focused way to intentionally note gratitude in our lives.

Sometimes we are overwhelmed with challenges. The list is endless but we all deal with challenges including some big ones relating to health, finances and relationships, and each challenge, these or others, diverts our attention from gratitude. I remember years ago, a friend always ended her emails or other communications with a mention of gratitude; ” Gratefully”, _____ or “With Gratitude”_____.  At the time, I thought it seemed a bit much to sign-off in this way, but now I believe it is an expression of intentionally focusing on gratitude, and in the case of the correspondence, gratitude for the interaction. In a similar vein, by reflecting every day on something you are grateful for at that time is a way to focus on something positive despite difficult challenges.

I have started harvesting gratitude, and intend to add a new message to my container as often as possible during 2023. I am going to let it flow, and not put pressure on myself to have a daily entry.  In my case, maybe it will be a poem, or a joke or an observation, but the form of thought is not really important.  Perhaps you too will join me in starting your own harvesting gratitude jar.  At the end of 2023, I will read all the ways I was grateful this year feasting on how much I have to be grateful for in my life.