WEverb11: Appreciate

For the month of December, I’ll be participating in #WEverb11. Each day gives a new prompt, each of which is a chance to reflect and look forward.

#9: In which moment did you find yourself flooded with gratitude? How will you rally around gratitude in 2012?

Contributed by Megan http://everlastingpresent.com/

I don't know what to say about this one.  There's no particular moment that stands out to me -- I wonder if there really is for most people (unless it's one of those landmark moments like the minute your spouse wakes up from a coma or you get a remission announcement from your doctor or something). 

There were of course millions of moments I felt overwhelmed with gratitude.

Every time I really listen to a single friend complain about a date flop or an inability to find someone she (or he) wants to date, or to a friend who is in the process of divorce, I'm grateful for feeling secure with my husband. 

Every time I work on a miserable case at work, I think how lucky I am to have never been the victim of a sexual assault, or any other abuse really (though wow, I really got spanked hard once for fighting with my brother!). 

Every time I think or talk about our vacation plans and trips for the next year, or for past years, I think about how grateful I am to have gotten to have the experiences I did, to have the nature or nurture to be interested in seeing new places, to have the great travel buddy I found in my husband, and to have the discipline to make the choices in how we allocate time and money resources in our lives to make our travels possible. 

Every time I watch news coverage of a major natural disaster or people in extreme poverty, I'm grateful for being born in America at the time I was and to the family I was.  I can't say I never wanted for anything as a child, but I never wanted for anything I needed (Cabbage Patch kids didn't count as something I needed, and I did get one, just a year later than everyone else). 

Every time I finish I race, I'm grateful I can run.  That's a lie.  Every time I PR in a race is true, but not every race.  After a crash and burn race, I'm usually too busy beating myself up to be grateful I got to do it. 

Every time I actually look at the amount of (diminishing!) debt I have, I'm grateful for a steady income that lets me do things like make mortgage payments. 

Every time I'm around my family, I think how lucky I am that we all get along so well and that everyone is healthy and happy. My brothers have married some amazingly wonderful, fun, sweet and smart women who really make them happy and who I enjoy being around too.

I guess if I have to pick one moment, it was October 15, very close to midnight.  I was scurrying around trying to get all my brothers, their wives (and one fiancee), their kids, and my folks together to take one big family picture.  We'd taken several at the church, but the kids weren't there, and they weren't on my camera, so I wouldn't get to look back at it anytime I want.  So my family was exasperated with me I'm sure, I'm always the one who likes taking way more pictures than anyone wants (but of course they all want to see them and then thank me later).  But sure enough, we all got together right next to the bar.  A kid I used to babysit when he was little took the picture with my camera, and standing there smiling with all the people I love the most was one of those moments of overwhelming gratitude.

Not sure how to answer the second part of the question -- I'd like to do more charity work in 2012, but I'm not entirely sure that will be a resolution or something I'll commit to.  Instead I guess the best way for me to "rally around gratitude" is to keep blogging -- it's a good way to recognize the many wonderful moments that comprise my life (and the $hitty moments too, but that's all part of the game!).