How to be grateful...

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. - Melody Beattie - Gratitude is something that I'm working on not only with myself but with my daughter.  We have both become a little too used to getting what we want and not being grateful for what we have.  Since winter we have been making an extra focus on thanking God for every day.  And in that aspect we have been working on what we need versus what we want - we're still not very good at it but as always it's a work in progress. As gratitude becomes a greater part of our life so do friends and family.  As the academic year winds to a close, I am grateful for the ability to spend a majority of the day with my daughter and get to see her grow up without hearing about it through daycare or a sitter.  She is an amazing child who I am most grateful for and without her life would be incredibly different! As we both work on our gratitude I find that we spend more time stopping to smell the roses along the way and TRUELY enjoy each aspect of the time we spend together.  The positive affirmations continue to increase as does the ability to stop and do what we need to do and want to do.  We WANT to spend time together - we WANT to pray together - we WANT to learn new things - we WANT to have new experiences - and most importantly - we WANT to do all of these things together. That is the most amazing aspect of it all.