We celebrated New Years at home, following all the evening celebrations in various time zones on TV. We did Caribbean for Marissa, then sent her to bed; Addisyn and Piper stayed up for New York/Virginia new years and for New Orleans. Chris and Karen stayed up till California midnight and woke the kids up for it (by their request), but they didn't remember it in the morning.
I resolve to purposefully practice and cultivate gratitude within myself and with my kids. At least twice/month, I'd like to make a point of expressing feelings of gratitude with others.
It is so often that we take people and things granted. Gratitude to me will be the practice of being more mindful of what I am doing and feeling so I can recognize the blessings in front of me and be grateful for them. I read an article to people who are more mindful are also able to handle stress better because they recognize that their life (and the things stressing them) are meaningful and they care about them. I want to not only recognize the blessings
I have, but I wasn't to take that inside feeling and share it out. Gratitude should be from the inside-out; that is, taking the feeling in our hearts, and showing it through kindness towards
others.
I'd like to share this idea and practice with others, in particularly my kids, my students, and my family, and my scouts. I will try to teach it by modeling it, making it tangible, and keeping it simple (yeah, I got those from a Family magazine article). I verbalize it by telling my kids what I am thankful for, esp during "peaches and pits" at dinner, using a thankful for box at Thanksgiving again--writing what we are thankful for on paper and reading them at the end
of the month, and reminding them of how lucky we are for some of our simple conveniences and
pleasures (toothbrushes, internet, our RV...)
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