Last Christmas I was given a 2014 diary with a cheerful bird on the cover – a book with a week on two pages. I already use a smart phone and a huge family calendar in an ongoing struggle to stay organized, so a third daybook was going to add to the confusion. But it seemed like the ideal book for a gratitude journal.
Many people encourage the use of a gratitude journal to focus on the positive in your life. I started on January 1. Many of my entries focused on practical essentials: A furnace that works. Warm, sturdy boots. Electricity. Sunshine. Warm mittens. Enough money. A home. Sleep. Smoked salmon. Chocolate. Definitely chocolate.
Blessings are not shared when they are trapped inside the pages of a gratitude journal.
I was often grateful for family and community: My son, such a wonderful kid. An inspiring teacher. A helpful colleague. Bright new interns full of enthusiasm. Church. My creative daughter.
And the world around me: God’s love, birds singing, a bright red cardinal, laughter, snow melting, singing, a puppy next door, a cellist playing a haunting melody in the subway, and the time to sit with someone in the last week of her life.
But after a few months, I got bored with the whole gratitude journal thing. Sitting down at the end of the day writing down what I was grateful for was too passive.
It is not enough for me to count my blessings like Scrouge counting his coins. I need to do the harder work of actively living out gratitude in my life. Blessings are not shared when they are trapped inside the pages of a gratitude journal.
I think blessings are a bit like coins – sure, we can count them, and we can share them. But blessings are much more powerful than coins, because when we share our blessings they multiply.
Seeker of Wisdom 