Many years ago, during a difficult period in life, my mother gave to me a book called Simple Abundance Journal of Gratitude.  In this book, I was provided an inspirational quote and free space to record what I was grateful for that day.  At that time I scoffed at the book’s significance and the power of gratitude so I put it aside and never did anything with it.  Lo an behold — as I was unpacking and cataloging my books this past week I found that journal and was struck by how grateful I truly am for what I have.  Though the book still isn’t likely one that I’ll record my thoughts in daily I thought I would share with you some of what gave me an abundance of gratitude for the year 2009:

  1. Family – Sure we bicker and disagree and meddle in each other’s lives but I’m so very grateful to have the love and support of my parents, brother, sister and niece.  They’ve picked me up after some extremely difficult times in my life and though make recovery difficult at times they are truly the best and most important thing in my life.
  2. Health – I almost loath saying it for fear of jinxing 2010 but I had a fairly decent year health wise in 2009.  I’m super grateful that I did not have any recurrences of major illnesses I had in 2008 (I’m talking to you pneumonia!). As part of that I’m beyond grateful to have the most fabulous team of medical professionals. It’s important to be able to trust in your care and I quite literally trust my team (and yes, it is a team of at least 10) with my life.
  3. Wealth – Man am I grateful to have a job! I’ve been very fortunate this year that in a fairly significant transition for my company (moving from one physical location that was 2 miles from my home to a new corporate headquarters an hour away) that my employer thought enough of my contributions to provide me with a very generous telecommuting situation. Had that not happened I would not have been able to remain and I would have had to find something new in a fairly unstable economy.
  4. Friends – I have the best friends in the world and the full extent of my gratitude for them can’t be expressed properly. They’ve listened to me cry, complain and rail against many people, places and things. Let me tell you, that is no easy task!
  5. Entertainment – Go books, television, and movies! I’m so grateful to you for providing me an escape from the constant wheel turning of my mind.  I’m an obsessor, yes I am, so when something happens I go to you first to take my mind off of it all. Thank you!
  6. Blogging – Though it’s only been just about 7 months since I started my blog I can’t express enough how grateful I am for having the experiences it brings into my life. I’ve met wonderful friends, enjoyed the generosity of strangers, and networked with fabulous industry professionals who have all enriched my life in a way that I can’t quite express to the fullest.  Thank you for embracing me and including me in wonderful events and initiatives I’m quite humbled by (and yes I’ll say it again, grateful to) you all.

I’m sure I’ve missed something or someone but this post is getting far too long as it is so I’ll end it here.  I’ve never been an extremely positive person by nature and I’m way too superstitious to make new year resolutions, but, as part of my personal goals for 2010 I hope to be a bit more half-full than half-empty. As part of that, even though I likely still won’t use that journal haha, I hope to better show my gratitude to the world around me.

Thank you my friends! May you have a healthy, wealthy, and successful 2010 to be grateful for!