Making a life full of great

Last night my family started a gratitude journal. Well I started it, with this wicked notebook I brought about a year ago, for such a purpose, but that sat in the drawer awaiting a moment in time for me to remember.

We’ve had a gratitude journal before, full of funny little titbits from the kids about stuff they love (chocolate, lollies, friends, playing, their Mum!) and me about stuff I love, appreciate and generally would like to notice more (a quiet cup of tea, a chance to read my book in the sunshine, when someone else did the dishes, the funny things those kids do sometimes). We didn’t stop because we didn’t have things to be grateful about, we stopped because life got busy – a separation, another baby, toddler, kids at school, nits, gymnastics and dance classes, teenage angst, training, a new job  – but in the busy-ness we forgot to notice all the stuff that was still full of great for us!

Life isn’t any less busy – now there’s a lovely man who lives with us, and he brings three more girls to our family (so sometimes there’s 7), and the busiest moment are usually all related to food preparation and hanging up towels and washing, but the most great moments are when we’re not busy. There’s this moment in time when we are riding with 6 kids (my teenager loves us but she would never be caught dead on a family bike ride!) and I’m bringing up the rear, with the baby (who is now 2) in the baby seat, and in front of me as we coast down the hills towards the ocean are 4 girls on bikes, and my guy with the four year old attached to his bike on a ride-behind (and even though she doesn’t have to she peddles like crazy!!), and the dog on a lead running beside and I remember to notice what it feels like to have life unfolding in front of me exactly as I imagined it could. And I have a family, more bigger and more wonderful than I imagined, and the sun is shining, and the ocean is this amazing turquoise blue, and the girls are laughing and talking (heaps!), and we have a home that people like to come to, and I found the job that’s like not working (it’s inspiring and energising and exciting) and we’re healthy and…and…and…

You see when you start to notice what is good, you see more of it. No matter where your life is right in his moment, stop being busy (even just for 1 minute) and notice one thing that you are grateful for, or that is amazing, or that you love. Find a book, full of blank pages, and start a Gratitude Journal – just for you, or for you and your partner, or for you and your family. But make it public, share your joy and watch it multiply….