Can your smartphone make you happier? Healthier? Richer? I think it can. There are a million apps out there, and most are useless, if we are being honest. I do love a good game of Angry Birds, but what is … Continue reading
Tag Archives: gratitude
Thank You to The People Who Matter Most!
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Today, as I wake up and realize I haven’t studied near enough for any of my midterms, I probably shouldn’t have gone out last night, and that there are four long days separating me from being done with said midterms, … Continue reading
In Dedication to A Ray of Sunshine
Yesterday’s WordPress blog prompt was to talk about one of your best friends and what they’ve taught you. I knew I had to write about this when I immediately knew who I’d write about and what I’d write.
In junior high, I met B through a mutual friend, and we’ve been friends ever since. My last couple of years in high school, we became really close. Being friends with her has been an absolute blessing, and as she is currently far, far away, serving a mission for her church, I’ve started really thinking about how her friendship has affected me.
She is a walking example of something I think we all believe is impossible: B is always happy, always grateful, always glad.
It’s so easy to get caught in the minutia of life and become frustrated, bogged down, and unhappy. It’s easy to make mountains out of molehills. It’s easy to make the excuse of “I’m just having a bad day.” But B has taught me that those things don’t have to – and shouldn’t – stop you for being a light to those around you.
Every time I see B, she is in a cheerful mood. Even if she’s had the worst day ever, she can vent for five minutes about it and then put a smile on her face and put the whole thing in perspective. She is the kind of person who can laugh through tears, and who can find reasons to be happy where none seem obvious. She is able to see sunshine in the places that others cannot. She puts excitement into everything that she does, and her enthusiasm is contagious.
B has always been an amazing friend to me, even when she’s had her own tough times. She is never too short on time for an encouraging word or a funny story. Never artificially happy, she is always finding something to be grateful for.
Being friends with her has taught me that the impact of perpetually looking on the bright side is immeasurable. Happiness is always found somewhere, and the difference between those that are always happy and those are not is in how hard you look for it. There are times where it will seem nearly impossible to be happy. And sometimes, that’s true. But where happiness does not wish to grow, the seeds of optimism and gratitude lie.
I’m certainly far from following her example, but I’d like to try. Because one thing the world needs is not more things to be happy about, but for more people to make an active effort to be happy.
Other blog posts following the same prompt:
- Friends | The Magic Black Book
- You want to see best friends against the world? | From One Crazy Life To Another
- Daily Prompt: BFFs | Journeyman
- Voices | Momma Said There’d Be Days Like This
- A Speck Of Green – Part 1(Looking for Dad) | The Jittery Goat
- Kith and kin | Perspectives on life, universe and everything
- Daily Prompt: BFFs | tnkerr-Writing Prompts and Practice
- things to learn | y
- Learning the lesson of love… Daily Prompt | alienorajt
- DP Daily Prompt: BFFS | Sabethville
- Daily Prompt – Lesson Learned: A Haiku; Tuesday, January 28, 2014 | LisaRosier.com
- Daily Prompt: BFFs | Incidents of a Dysfunctional Spraffer
- Daily Prompt: BFFs | laura-in-china
- Daily Prompt: BFFs | Under the Monkey Tree
- The lady with the plasters | Kate Murray
- Friends Trust Each Other Prayers and Promises
- Daily Prompt: BFFs | The Wandering Poet
- Defy the Diet | Daily Prompt: BFFs | likereadingontrains
- Seriously? | My Author-itis
- Friends | trifectumblog
- The one who spoke | dandelionsinwind
- Learning from each other | Geek Ergo Sum
- Those I Adore | Writing and Works
- Mans best friend | From One Crazy Life To Another
- A BFF Haiku | Lisa’s Kansa Muse
- I’ll Be There For You (When the Rain Starts to Fall) | thanks for letting me autograph your cat
- Special Purpose or Special Man | marjanitalarosa
- The Strength of Family | A mom’s blog
- Lessons Learned « One Crazy Mom
- Get Back Up | Wanderlein
- Because I knew you, I have been changed for good. | Amoeba Kat Musings
- S. Thomas Summers: Writing with some Ink and a Hammer | Me and the Outlaw Jesse James
- Daily prompt: BFFs | ferwam
- Never Letting Go | Pretty ToThinkSo…
- A Poem: A Bit of Friendly Advice | I Hope You’re Taking Notes
- Smoke Flares Must Taste Delicious | Exploratorius | Photo Hack & Curious Wanderer
- BFFs! | Eyes Through The Glass – A Blog About Asperger’s
- My Best Sisfur… | Haiku By Ku
- Daily Post: BFF aka A girl called Gigi | Willow Blackbird
- Daily Prompt: BFFs | Wordz on a Page
- Daily Prompt: BFFs | No Apologies
- Daily Prompt: Let Your Hair Down! | birgerbird
- Inspirational words from a friend | Processing the life
- Friends You Can Trust | Flowers and Breezes
- Alles Geben | I’m a Writer, Yes I Am
- The Urban Family | londonlately
- Ode to Spam | Farfetched Friends
- BFF Lessons | The Nameless One
- BFFs?? Sure! | LenzExperiments
- Best Friends Forever | Eyes to Heart
- Daily Prompt: BFFs | Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss
- Thanking God for Others | meanderedwanderings
- DP: Friends | As I See It
- Beauty is transcendental | My Floating Musings
- Daily Prompt: BFFs | Before it flickers away
- Things I’ve Learned by Being a BFF and Having a BFF | The Gilded Lotus
- Things You Can Learn From a Ledcat
- An Ode to My Bestest | The Best Life
- When a Polaroid Was Instant Gratification | Pairings :: Art + What Goes With It
- Friends: I Am a Friend of God | The Christian Gazette
- BFFs | Rima Hassan
- Daily Prompt: BFFs | anniethinksabout
- Telling it like it is | Emotional Fitness
- Red: Heaven in Hell’s despaire | The Seminary of Praying Mantis
- Daily Prompt: BFFs | A Room of One’s Own
- Daily Prompt: BFFs | Tigglesworth
- Daily Prompt: What My Best Friend Taught Me | readingwithafeather
- Grace | Reinvention of Mama
- Daily Prompt : BFFs / Friends | simplyvegetarian777
- I shoulda got a MacBook Air! [Sheri #3] | Rob’s Surf Report
- Daily Prompt: BFFs | Poetry
- BFF World – Passionately Bored
- Love thy bestie… | bagofbuttons
- Life sends us Tests, Challenges and Temptations… for our Ego… | An Upturned Soul
- Daily Prompt: BFFs | thoughts and entanglements
- Of All The Many Lessons | Call Me Incorrigible
- Daily Prompt: Being Friends! | All Things Cute and Beautiful
- Friends: Daily Post | Destino
- Lessons of Love | Tale of Two Tomatoes
- Best Friends Forever | Willow’s Corner
- The Video Game Club? | Nodus Tollens
- Daily Prompt: BFFs | The honey sandwich symbiosis | theberningblog
- Daily Prompt: BFFs | Holoholo Girls
- My Best Butt | Lenora Howard
- How to Beat Cancer Like it Stole Something « A Buick in the Land of Lexus
- Describe myself?… I guess… This is it | sunny side dreamers
- Day 28: Ode To A Playground | THE BLACK SPAGHETTI CHRONICLES
- Friends | Scribbled Posts
- BFF’s… A Message to Teens | The Abuse Expose’ with Secret Angel
- Luna | 52 Miles per Month
- My most important lesson I’ve learned from my wife | My Strong Medicine
- Sometimes Nothing Equals Something | Overcoming Bloglessness
- Daily Prompt: Friends | Occasional Stuff
- BFFs 4-Ever & Ever ‘Till The End! | A.C. Melody
- BFF’s, What Have They Done for You Lately? | 365 Days of Thank You
- It’s Okay To Go A Little Crazy | The Dragon Weyr
- Not one, but five #BFFs | Twenty-Four Problems
- The Most Important Lesson | Blessed Zyra
- Cohort of Awesome | VernetteOutLoud
- Daily Prompt: BFFs…Sugar and Spice | heysugarsugar
A Reflection on Giving Thanks
Thanksgiving: It’s a time for way too much pie and too little working out, for football and for family, and most importantly, for giving thanks. Heading toward this important (translation: food-related) holiday, I’ve been thinking about what it means to give thanks.
For many of us, I think giving thanks is a process of solitary reflection. Though these utterances of gratitude might be verbalized around the Thanksgiving dinner table, they might not make it much further than that.
I think that there is a lot of value in reflection upon our blessings. It makes us happier, more satisfied, and more willing to accept the negatives of life because we know that for every negative, there are so many more things that make life undeniably fulfilling.
One challenge I issue to you for this Thanksgiving season (and beyond!) is to start writing in a gratitude journal daily. I recently started writing in a gratitude journal, and I’m amazed at how much I’ve begun to see the effects I just mentioned. Every day, I take time to reflect and write down five things that I am grateful for.
On particularly good days, I’ve had no problem coming up with five. Those days are in themselves something to be grateful for, but I’ve found a lot more value in those days that have been less pleasant. The days that I’ve sat down, thinking there was no way I could fill those five lines, have been an eye-opener. They’ve made me realize that there is always something to be grateful for. It depends on how willing you are to open your eyes and see it.
What is in front of us might be ominous and seemingly insurmountable, but what is in our periphery – friends, family, even the peace found in sitting down with a cup of tea for ten minutes and reading for pleasure – makes it possible for us to handle that which is trying.
While I think that daily gratefulness is so important for our own well-being, I would like to issue you a second challenge for this Thanksgiving season: take your thanks-giving to those you’re giving thanks for!
Giving thanks in tangible ways directly to those people that we are thankful can be immeasurably powerful. In eighth grade, a teacher asked our class to write a letter to someone who we were thankful for, and we got extra credit if we actually gave it to the person. I wrote one to my Sunday school teacher, who was so very important in shaping my faith, and whose impact on my life is still real for me today, and sent it to him.
Not only did he tell me the letter had so much affected him that it reduced him to tears, but even years later he told me he still had the letter, and referred to it in times of self-doubt. Gratitude is powerful in action.
This personal expression of gratitude doesn’t just have to be for those close to us. I know around our Thanksgiving dinner table, we all mention how thankful we are for our troops. I know we aren’t the only family who feels that way, and I can’t imagine how powerful it would be if even 1% of Americans made that gratitude actionable. A letter to a soldier or a few hours spent volunteering in a veterans’ residence is a beautiful expression of thanks that can even be life-altering for the recipient.
(This gratitude in action does not just affect the recipient in profound ways. It also can permanently increase our happiness. Studies have shown that the “gratitude letter” exercise increases our happiness levels even months after we have delivered the letter. Making others happy by giving thanks for them making us happy makes us more happy. Can’t beat that!)
Whether you’re with friends or family (or both!), home or far away, I hope that you have a wonderful Thanksgiving I’ll be at home, watching football, spending time with family, and thinking of valid excuses for living on pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes. Oh, and giving thanks, of course!
Xoxo,
Taylor