For teacher appreciation week, my company sent us all a gratitude journal for teachers. I’m a sucker for almost any kind of notebook with lined pages to write on and inspiring quotes and such to get the juices flowing.

I’ve tried before to keep a gratitude journal on my own but failed terribly. So far, I’m enjoying this one because the pressure to write in it every day isn’t there. It has a space to list the date so if I miss some days, I don’t feel like I am a loser.

It is also very simple. The directions tell you to write 3-5 things you are grateful for, and I’ve decided that three is plenty, and if I don’t come up with three, I’m not holding myself hostage until I do. That is where I failed before because when I couldn’t list five each day, after several days, I just quit. It isn’t that I’m not grateful for a hundred little things each and every day, but I’m hard pressed to try to list them, even two minutes after I feel grateful. Why is that? I don’t know but it seems to be in line with remembering to make this phone call or write down that thing on the grocery list or why I walked into a certain room and get there and look around trying to remember what was so important to bring me in there in the first place.

Is this because I just have too many things bouncing around in my brain? Is it the “Oh, look at that new little bunny” distraction? It could be the strain from constant anxiety over various things, situations, or people. But I am grateful, right now, that I remembered to write and post this.