I read a quote during the week that said ‘It is not happy people who are thankful, it is thankful people who are happy’, and I agree. In the past few weeks since I have started my gratitude experiment I have felt my levels of joy expanding again, my capacity to notice and be enchanted by the simple things is returning, and small pleasures are once again the source of everyday happiness. Sometimes, it takes the tearful talk with a sister to set you back on the gratitude track, and once your feet are set on the path there is nothing else to do but run head first into that happier future.
Last Sunday night with these two – aren’t my Mama and Papa cute?
With that, I present to you my Nourished Life Gratitude List for this week:
Monday: I had the opportunity to take Plan B, and had a soul-warming walk in the autumn afternoon sunshine.
Spots of beauty hidden in suburbia, also, there were cows just around the corner – cows!
Tuesday: Grateful to belong to a community as strong as the running community, and seeing runners from all over the globe draw together to help each other through tragedy.
Wednesday: Having cups of green tea made for me (thank you sweetheart) and writing 1050 words of my manuscript!
Thursday: Sharing my gluten-free chocolate chip cookie recipe with a co-worker last week lead to samples for Jenny and I to share over our Thursday coffees!
Long black + cookie = why I love my co-workers
Friday: My whole family gathered around the dinner table for a weekly catch up.
Saturday: Spending time doing hard yard work (shifting 20 cubes of dirt) at my sister and her husband’s house, the best nap ever after lunch (always feels better after hard work), and a dinner-and-movie date with my darling in the evening (Olympus Has Fallen, definitely worth it for action fans like us).
The crew. The dirt. The muscles we never knew we had.
Sunday: A quiet day reading my new delicious. magazine and thinking about making some gluten-free ANZAC biscuits for Thursday.
All in all, another wonderful week of everyday adventures and learning to be thankful for the little moments in my life. This coming week promises to be just as great: a public holiday to pay tribute to our military personnel past and present, new patients at work, eleven weeks until the Gold Coast Half Marathon, opportunities to cook for those I love (and share some recipes with all of you again) and some thrift shopping on Saturday (reasons to be revealed later).
Tell me, dear reader, what are you grateful for this week? Do you enjoy gardening and yard work sometimes (I am actually enjoying my aching back muscles today)?
