6 Things my gratitude journal taught me not to take for granted

It's been a while since I've talked about my gratitude journal, but since then I've learned a lot from the journal, and have learned that there are little things that I take for granted, and because of that I also have been using my illustrated world coloring book to keep quotes or anything that inspires me inside, so I can remember what's important in life.


1. Sunrises and sunsets: Life is beautiful, the sun rises and sets every day. Not everybody gets the chance to enjoy it. I still can and as cliche as it sounds, I never felt grateful that I know that each day is a new start and the beginning of a new adventure.

2. My pets: Since I've written, Alec is no longer with us. He's with his old family. I'm sure they're happy to have him back in their lives. But Alec not being here made me realize that yes I may have taken my furry friends for granted. Just because I love them, feed them and play with them doesn't mean that they're going to be here forever.

3. Faith and Pixie Dust: Like one of my favorite book quotes have said I don't mean anything about luck and religion, I'm actually talking about the faith in myself, the faith in other people. If someone tells you that they have in faith in you, when your life is a mess, it becomes that overwhelming feeling that you get when people send their 'pixie dust' and hope your way.

4. Learning about being gluten-free: You know how Facebook has those "On this day" app/tab? I used to be someone that was open about not feeling too good, I would talk about when my stomach hurt or my head hurt, and that actually taught me that I'm grateful for being able to connect the dotted lines when it came to being gluten-free.

5. Having something to eat and somewhere to sleep: There was a quote in the book by Mason Cooley that said, "Three meals plus a bedtime makes four sure blessings a day." We take food and a lot of little things in life for granted. Not everyone has a bed to sleep in or the ability to eat every day.

6.  My happiness: The inspirational quote by the Dalai Lama: "If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion." I try to make others happy practicing compassion, but I never realized that I need to be happy to. I do things and sometimes forget that I'm part of the equation, and because of that, I really have taken my happiness for granted.

Thanksgiving is coming up and we do need to think about what we're thankful for and what we're really grateful for. Are there things you take for granted you know you shouldn't?