How to Be Thankful for the Little Things

In an earlier post, It’s Never Too Late to Say Thank You, I share with you the thank you letter I wrote to my oldest son, Chase, which was read at his funeral service.  I mention all of the blessings that came into my life, because of Chase. The blessings because he was is mine.  The things in my life, for which I am thankful, change, grow, fade, weigh heavy, can make me laugh, and can be reminders, when times are tough, that things are good.  Or, if that’s too tough to see, that things can be good again.

I’ve been having a tough time lately.  The equation goes something like: finite waking hours in the day + fleeting hours of sleep + the inability to be several places at once + toddler tantrums + mom guilt + a potential hormone imbalance + big dreams with a smaller budget = a thirty-something girl with thinning hair who is lacking the feeling of truly being “present” in anything, because she’s too concerned with what’s not going right or is spending way too much time trying to solve the quadratic equation for the precise moment when it may all fall apart.  Did I mention the nagging cough that won’t go away?

I’d like to put aside that girl who worries too much for a minute (she’s super exhausting), and dust off my thank-you note skills.  If I could find a way to be thankful then, I sure as heck better be able to find some thanks now.

Thank yous don’t always have to carry deep meaning or be hard hitting.  Look at Jimmy Fallon – he’s making viral television show moments based on the concept of thank you (sprinkled with smile dust).  He makes people laugh, because we have the ability to find humor or comfort sometimes in the simplest thoughts.  A simple thank you. Okay, so putting aside my thank you whoppers, like family, husband, health, empathy, rainbow babies, angel babies, employment and home, here are a few more:

1. Thank you for moments where I feel like someone just gets me – like when my husband and I don’t want to cook and both say ‘Taco Bell’ at the same time.
2. Thank you for baby gates – which I’m learning should also be called toddler tantrum fences.
3. Thank you high school reunions – for reminding me that I’m not eighteen anymore, but it’s okay to pretend that I am for a night.
4. Thank you Advil – for keeping my body less angry after workouts, or after getting out of bed, or after high school reunions.
5. Thank you for the little voice – the one that tells me I’m awesome…not-so-much the one that tells me I’m not good enough.
6. Thank you to you, my reader – for not thinking I’m crazy for the whole ‘little voices’ comment.  Just a little crazy is fine.
7. Thank you jewelry designers – for allowing me to wear my feelings in the form of charms (I was going for understated elegance here, but I acknowledge that it’s veering more towards oddly uncomfortable).
8. Thank you for not reading the instructions for once – My general take on instructions is that reading them is strongly encouraged, but when the garden seeds you just bought instruct you to plant in early spring, but you do it in September anyway and start sprouting a pumpkin in four days, you start to feel like conquering the world just might be in your cards (after harvest of course).
9. Thank you for bubbles – I secretly get excited when my kids ask me to turn on the bubble machine.  It’s impossible not to have fun with bubbles.  Unless maybe you have a fear of bubbles (Ebulliophobia). Yes, this is a thing.
10. Thank you pajama pants – I make your acquaintance everyday, but it always manages to feel as exciting as a first date (Cotton, meet Spandex).

I challenge you to think about what some of your thank yous are.  Why should Jimmy Fallon and I have all of the fun? Yes, it doesn’t solve a quadratic equation of any kind, and it’s not going to make a nagging cough go away, but it just might send a sprinkling of smile dust your way.