A Worthy Attempt at a Gratitude Journal

At the church Dan and I have been attending for the past few months, the minister suggested we keep a "Gratitude Journal" this week. As you might remember from last year's "The Obligatory Gratitude Post," I never seem to take these things too seriously despite my initial intentions.

At least I attempted the "homework" assigned by the minister. That's more than I can say about my husband, Dan, who rebels against organized religion by refusing to even fill in the blanks on the sermon notes. For ten years now, the church-homework-related conversations have gone a bit like this:

Me: "Are you going to do what Reverend so-and-so suggested this week?"

Dan: "Pssh! No."

Me: "It might be kind of fun or enlightening."

Dan: "Pssh! That's silly."

If Dan completes church homework 0% of the time, I probably do it about 5% of the time. And I like to fill in the sermon notes, not because of some guilt-ridden sense of duty, but because I am anal and a blank must be filled in or life just isn't worth living.

In honor of Thanksgiving, I decided to share the one church challenge I did finish. I apologize in advance for the superficiality of my gratitude journal. I'm just not very deep.

Sunday, November 24
I am grateful for high Cs and that I can hit one again.

Monday, November 25
I am grateful that my husband doesn't actually hate me like he did in that dream I had last night where he wanted to stay in separate hotel rooms. (A little insight into my neurotic dream issues.)

Tuesday, November 26
I am grateful for enthusiastic sixth graders who actually want to be in a musical this spring. (I must have written this after I spent much of my Thanksgiving break compiling materials and writing a script for this year's production.)

Wednesday, November 27
I am grateful that I did not see a cougar on my run this morning. I am not grateful for yellow air quality. (Boiseans will sympathize.)

Thursday, November 28
I am grateful that my husband is excited about zip-lining today even though I am scared too death for him here on the ground.

Friday, November 29
I am grateful that Dan and I had a quiet Thanksgiving, regardless of Dan's zip-lining.

Saturday, November 30
I am grateful that I boycotted Black Friday.

Yeah, that about covers it. If you want something more philosophical, I suggest you check out Facebook. It's a very thankful place right now. 'Tis the season.

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