Last week, I wrote a post called Gratitude breeds gratitude. The gist was, when other people feel, speak about and express gratitude, it becomes contagious. When my friends feel joy, I feel joy. When people are grateful, I not only feel grateful for them, I find myself looking for more opportunities to feel grateful myself.
When I asked my dear friend Lauren what she is most grateful for, she recalled a seemingly shitty situation, but saw it so differently it turned into a time of grace and wonder. Here is her gratitude journal moment.
I’m grateful for my week at home with sick kids.
I used to freak out about germs when the kids got sick. The spreading of germs! The cleaning of germs! Germs! But last week, I realized a little childhood virus isn’t so bad after all.
My son started kindergarten in August. The tears snuck up on me. I stood and cried over his little sleeping, freckled nose and long eyelashes. I mourned the days when we stayed home in our pjs, nothing to do, just the two of us, and then, a short year later my daughter joined our party. Now, life with semi-older kids seems faster paced – always rushing, a little stressed, not a lot of quality hang out time.
Last week, both kids got sick. My daughter got an ear infection, my son had pneumonia, both had fevers. We were stuck at home, just the three of us all week. In year’s past I would have gone stir crazy. How would I exercise, work, how much work would the kids miss at school (what if they miss a letter in the ABCs and grow up not knowing what ‘Q’ was?) While I did have small moments of frustration, I chose to just settle in and enjoy.
We did a lot of craft projects, snuggling, and baked a bit. We had lots of quality time in pjs, no cleaning of germs, no rushing out the door. I didn’t fight it, I leaned into the restful week and I felt grateful.
I loved reading this from Lauren and hope you did too. What are you grateful for today? Are you keeping a gratitude journal? Let me know in the comments below!
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