Day 12

I'm stumbling along trying to stay focused on living thankfully. I've been getting sidetracked. Let me try to get started again...

36.the preschool mom who I don't know that offered to watch Nat in the car while I ran Caleb into school. I love random acts of kindness from strangers.

Boy, I feel rusty at this. Somehow I feel like is be better at a complaining type blog, than a gratitude project. I'm supposed to be looking for things about a physical body to be thankful for...

37. I suppose I normally just take for granted that my body pretty much just functions normally. So I'm thankful that my body just does what its supposed to do.

38. Yesterday when I was fasting I was more aware of my body's dependence on God. I was feeling hunger, some of my muscles were sore from slight dehydration I think. I was just reminded that my body needs constant nourishment. And where does the nourishment come from? Well, ultimately from God. Even the food we "make" is derived from the earth, and more accurately, we just recycle it. So I'll be grateful for a constant supply of nourishment.

Day 11 (or so)

Hmm, I've been a little distracted. Time to get back on course.

34. I'm thankful for breathing. For sucking in fresh air and holding it in my lungs.

Day 10

Tired again . Gonna be brief

30. Hands. To hold little hands with, and to hold big hands with

31. Smiles. On friends. On strangers. On babies especially. And on Stephen. Ooh, and just thinking about this brings a smile to MY face :)

32. The sense of touch. Being able to feel. Nice to be able to feel stuff. Even nice to be able to feel pain. (otherwise we would do things that would damage our bodies and not stop doing it to avoid pain). Hmmm, that probably has a spiritual parallel.

Day 9

27. A voice. The ability both to speak and to have something to say.
28. Movement. I'm really glad I can move myself where I want to go, and I can move my body in many different ways.

29. I'm trying to dig deeper in appreciating the gift of a body. Fundamentally, why even have a body? It houses my spirit. Without a body what could my spirit even do? I don't think it could. Tonight we were talking to the kids about the scripture that says faith without works is dead. I think that's kind of like a spirit without a body. You can have all these ideas about what you want to do, but then your body gets to work and actually does them (or doesn't do them). So I'll be grateful for that today. The ability to DO. To act upon anything. That really is a great gift. Kind of goes with agency. Having a body gives me the ability to take advantage of having agency. Nice.

Finding Joy

So, the whole point of this is to live my life more joyfully. Not that I'm not happy, because generally I am. But I want more joy. More inner peace. Less getting bogged down by the everyday hassles. Less distraction. More focus on what's really important.

I find myself at the end of the day laying in bed thinking, "OK, what can I post about being thankful for today?" Then I rack my brain for anything that might fit. So it's a step in the right direction. The next change I'm going to make, is to try to focus on my gifts/blessings throughout the day. I think that will give me more of the shift of focus I'm looking for.

Also, this week I'm going to focus on gratitude for my body. I know that sounds weird. Let me explain. I think I have a bit of a warped view about bodies. I see my body as a burden. Something to maintain. It needs to be cleaned, fed, exercised, taken to the doctor for checkups, and on and on and on. Just more on my list of things to do. (Really, I have to feed this thing three times a day FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE???) I'm pretty sure I could use some re-focus right there. So for this week, I'm going to start trying to appreciate and have gratitude for the fact that I have a body.

For starters:

25. Today I was working outside to create the pool deck of my dreams (it's already about 4 months in the making). I love running my fingers through the dirt. I love feeling the cool grittiness on my fingertips.

26. I'm glad I have fully functioning eyes. I love that I can see. Even the boring things, I'm really glad that I can see them. But I'm especially glad I can see the really cool things. Like the purple flowers that we have constantly blooming in our Florida yard. Like the little dimples that show up under Nat's eyes when she's crying, Like the smile that decorates Caleb's face when he see's Nat after 3 long hours at preschool. Like the sun creating an outline along the palm tree-lined horizon.

Day 7

Tired

22. Kandice
23. Juliana
24. Laura

Day 6

This will be hard today. It's late and I'm feeling ungrateful.

19. Music. Singing. Playing the piano

20. Snuggling with Caleb.

21. Reading lessons with Caleb

This is hard. It feels like I'll never make it to 100, let alone 1000! I'm hoping to see some sort of personal internal transformation