Days of Gratitude - The First Days.

I said on January 1st in a post about things for which I am grateful that I have joined a group on Facebook run through the Sunday Assembly in Newcastle.  It's a gratitude group.  The idea is that you post a picture and/or description each day of something for which you are grateful.

It's good to be able to focus on gratitude because often the days can be hard and sometimes the challenges are immense.  But if we can focus on gratitude then that can help to change our outlook on our lives.

The first days.  Here are my gratitude pictures from December 30th (I started two days early) until January 7th.  There will be a blog post soon covering my gratitude pictures from January 8th to 18th.  I've been away from home - giving them some peace there - and have so much to be very thankful for.  A few more blogs of photos are planned too which will be a relief to anyone who struggles with the amount of words I can usually scribble.

Looking back on these nine days brings me nine smiles.  I can recommend this practice to you all.  Smiles when you experience things.  Smiles when you record them.  And smiles when you look back on the recorded experiences.

 

 

December 30th

Today I am grateful as I remember the simple pleasure of Sunday morning, sharing the sunrise with my child.

December 31st

It's still a day early for posting. But. This calendar.

Not just the calendar. But the friend who sent it to me. One of the new friendships in 2015.

This calendar and friendship may get a repost in a few weeks on the day her cat is featured.

January 1st
I am grateful that at the start of this year I understand myself a hell of a lot better than I did a year ago, that I was able to accept something I'd been denying for a very long time. Understanding brings hope and a place to begin to build a life I can do, rather than keeping on trying to build a life I could never do.

January 2nd
Today I am thankful that I am finally being brave enough to play and not worry too much about the (nearly complete) result. And that some things take attention, not skill.

I wanted to walk but the weather put me off so this happened to sheet one of the first pad of art paper I have ever bought.
 

January 3rd

Productive use of insomnia last night. Another three feet of books cleared out that don't belong in my future.

I am grateful because - and this is miraculous - there is now a 10 inch gap on one of the sets of bookshelves in my bedroom.

A gap! Woo hoo!

January 4th

Grateful to be able to walk through Jesmond Dene in the rain with child. Grateful for the noise of the waterfall even if I couldn't have a lie down on my favourite rock, just to the left of the middle of the water. Grateful for the store of grateful photos taken in the last 24 hours.

January 5th


I forgot to take a picture. But this place.

A friend got me to come along to an art group there this morning and I played with oil paint for the first time ever. I haven't got the foggiest idea what I'm meant to be doing with it but that's okay. It's about fun not perfection or finesse.

January 6th

Grateful for this book which arrived in the post this week (and which cost 51p) One exercise down, 365 to go. 500 free written words Above all, this is about fun and play but it should help lots with making my writing more, er, existing.

It was so much fun chuckin' down words that the book got a blog post - and if anyone wants to do the exercise too I'd love to see the varied results that fall out of people's heads. http://reborn-as-woman.blogspot.co.uk/

January 7th
Grateful for the meeting I had this morning, that there are people like that in the world.

Grateful that she is very understanding and was happy to traipse across town with me in the wet because the cafe I'd suggested, that is normally quiet enough for me, felt far too loud today.

Grateful that this potentially sizable project we have in mind is actually likely to happen and that by the end of the year something good may exist that currently doesn't. All we want as a social support and advocacy organisation that is also an information centre, campaigning group and provider of education and training on a particular subject. Nothing big!

But I didn't take a photo. So here's a happy three-legged unicorn that was seen on a post somewhere a while back.