About ten or eleven years ago I read a book called One Thousand Gifts. It was written by Ann Voskamp and in her lyrical style of writing she encouraged us all to write down the many wonderful joys we experience, even when they seem minor. She challenged readers to capture these moments in writing and number them til til there's a list of one thousand gifts.
Can you believe I stopped at 919?
One of my new year's resolutions for the year 2013 was to finish my list. And then I never added another. Acknowledging more than 900 gifts in my life was definitely enough to make it a common practice. I regularly notice little things like the buds on the tree that are days away from opening or the joy of choosing which color of fineliner pen I want to write with. As we've come through these last few very turbulent and deeply painful years, I know that having the discipline to look for the good, and then giving thanks for it, kept me centered and helped push back the anger and bitterness that could have been overwhelming.
So even though the practice is firmly in place, I'd like to finish. Here are numbers 920-928.
920. favorite coffee mugs
921. green blankets
922. my thick gray sweater that I've had to wear nearly every day this winter to keep warm. (also, it has pockets!)
923. hot water for doing dishes and how I know that putting my hands in the water will warm me up for a while. It makes doing dishes not so bad.
924. watching my kids do a sport or activity that they love. After covid, I will never take that gift for granted again.
925. My nieces
926. decluttering and reorganizing. I worked this week on a bookshelf where I found lots of treasures, but also lots of books we no longer need. Boxing those up and seeing a simpler shelf felt really good.
927. Snaps from my daughter who is away at college.
928. the sound of my husband practicing the piano
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