Let's make a gratitude list! - by Magdalena Scott

Photo by Edu Lauton on Unsplash

There's never been a better time to make a gratitude list, has there?

I mean, like, EVER?

The last few weeks have been hard for all of us residents of Earth, and we're not out of the woods yet. Some moments, hours, and days I experience anxiety, overwhelm, and hopelessness.

But I'm often surprised at how many things I can be grateful for. And I know I'm not the only one. So let's talk about it.

Okay, I'll go first. And I'll list several things to give you time to think about yours. (Yes, this is a group project. I know, I know, you always hated group projects in school, but this one is different. You'll be glad you participated. It will make you feel better!)

1. Despite sheltering in place, I was able to share my son's birthday dinner with him and my daughter-in-law by way of Google Hangouts. He blew out the candles on the beautiful, home-baked cake at their home, and I blew out the ones I'd stuck into an oat muffin.

1.a. And! We have a virtual game night each week the same way. Such fun.

2. My cat has calmed down after a period of acting out. (I think she has accepted that she's stuck with me for the duration. Thank goodness, because at least one of us was going to need medication.)

3. I've spent many hours in the old West, reading historical sweet romances.

4. Taste of Home's recipe for brown sugar oat muffins.

4.a. Having all the ingredients on hand for said muffins.

4.b. Eating said muffins.

5. Permitted walks outdoors in actual springtime (instead of jumping from winter to summer as we've done for several years). Many days have been gorgeous, and the birds are so happy. (Okay, that's more than one point of gratitude for number five but you get the idea.)

Now it's your turn. Share something(s) from your gratitude list, please!

USA Today Bestselling Author Magdalena Scott is a practicing minimalist, having downsized from a 3,000 square foot house to a studio apartment, where her Giant Closet continues to resist taming. When not writing at home or spending time with family and friends, she loves to travel–carry-on baggage only–and is always pleasantly surprised at the kindness of strangers.


Website: https://magdalenascott.com/

Practicing Gratitude by Laura Ashwood

If the only prayer you say in your life is ‘thank you,’ that would suffice. – Meister Eckhart

Gratitute.  It's a simple word that has profound meaning.  Webster defines it as "the state of being grateful: Thankfulness."  Gratitude can shift your focus from what you perceive your life to lack to the abundance that is already present.  Studies show that the regularly practicing gratitude makes people happier and more resilient, it strengthens relationships, it improves health, and it reduces stress.

People tend to take for granted the good that is already present in their lives, I am not an exception.  It seems that I find myself all too often lamenting about things I wish I had, or how my life would be better if I only had this or could do this or that instead of looking at everything I already do have.  As an author, it's really easy to fall into impostor syndrome when I read a book that I love, thinking I can never write like that.  While I think that is natural and can be motivating on one level, it makes me feel awful on another.  There are people that would love to have what I have. 

When she was in high school, our daughter spent a weekend doing a mission project in the cities with our church youth group. They were cleaning and painting a building that was being used as a shelter for disadvantaged and homeless individuals. As she talked about her experience, she was overcome with tears. She explained that as they were handing out bags containing some personal toiletry items, an individual asked her for her socks. She never even considered socks being a covetable item.  Neither have I.  When I want socks, I open a dresser drawer and have many to choose from.  Have I considered being grateful for socks?  Not intentionally.

They say that if you want to start attracting positive things into your life, there is one small thing you should do every day—show your gratitude, appreciation and love for the people and things around you.  Over the past decade, researchers have identified great social, psychological, and physical health benefits that come from giving thanks. Benefits including better sleep, fewer symptoms of illness, and more happiness among adults and kids alike.  It makes perfect sense. 

The Bible is FULL of verses about Gratitude.  Among my favorites is:

"Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." - 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (NIV)

Give thanks in ALL circumstances.  It's not always easy.  I have gone through things in my life that I was NOT thankful for when I was going through them.  Looking back at those times, I can see the lessons I learned and how my life changed for the better for having gone through those experiences.  It's my goal to remember to give thanks even when I cannot find a "tangible reason" to be thankful.

This year I am determined to find gratitude in my daily life by keeping a Gratitude Journal. The idea is to make time several times each week to write down 3-5 things you are thankful for; soap, socks, or maybe just simply being.  Some helpful tips if you decide to start a gratitude journal:

• Don’t just go through the motions. Research by psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky and others suggests that journaling is more effective if you first make the conscious decision to become happier and more grateful. “Motivation to become happier plays a role in the efficacy of journaling,” says Emmons.
• Get personal. Focusing on people to whom you are grateful has more of an impact than focusing on things for which you are grateful.
• Try subtraction, not just addition. One effective way of stimulating gratitude is to reflect on what your life would be like without certain blessings, rather than just tallying up all those good things.
• Savor surprises. Try to record events that were unexpected or surprising, as these tend to elicit stronger levels of gratitude.
• Don’t overdo it. Writing occasionally (three to five times per week) is more beneficial than daily journaling. “We adapt to positive events quickly, especially if we constantly focus on them,” says Emmons. “It seems counterintuitive, but it is how the mind works.” Source

Once you become oriented toward looking for things to be grateful for, you will find that you naturally begin to appreciate simple pleasures and things that you previously took for granted. Gratitude should not be just a reaction to getting what you want, but an all-the-time gratitude, the kind where you notice the little things and where you constantly look for the good even in unpleasant situations.

What are you thankful for??


______
Connect with Laura on her website or sign up for her newsletter here.

The Finger by Milou Koenings

No, I'm not giving anyone one of those.  

I'm hoping to get mine back.

I've always thought of myself as someone who doesn’t take things for granted.   

Even as a kid, when leaving the house, I was the one who ran back to give whomever was staying behind a hug – just in case.  When my parents or siblings were the ones going out, I'd walk to the door with them to make sure we had happy memories of our parting.

I suppose put like this, it sounds a bit morbid.  As if I was expecting anyone of us to drop dead at any moment, Heaven forfend.   

Perhaps people who grow up in a quiet, peaceful little town don't think like that. (Maybe that's why I like to write about them!) I grew up in East Africa in the midst of a civil war, with neighbors who often were there one day and gone the next, and where I went to sleep each night to the sound of shooting in the hills punctuating the rhythmic song of toads.  So maybe I'm a little paranoid.  But paranoid or not, when my kids leave for school in the morning, I walk them to the street, makes sure, (as much as possible and educationally wise) that no matter how mad we might have been at each other over breakfast, we are back on good terms before they disappear for the day.

I try to appreciate people around me.  I am grateful for the little things, too - a warm sweater on a chilly night, a gorgeous flower.  I'm always counting my blessings and being grateful for them.  But I've learned this month that there are an infinite number of blessings that I've never given a thought to, things I've been taking for granted all my life and never really appreciated.

What brought about this somber train of thought?

A simple thing. A slip of the knife while making dinner. 

Only it was a sharp knife.  

And it sliced right to the bone. 

In the grand scheme of things, some stitches on the tip of a finger really aren't a big deal, even if an index finger out of commission for a few weeks is a bit of an inconvenience when you're a writer, a touch typist who works at a keyboard all day.  And it's a temporary inconvenience, too.

But I never gave a thought to how important that finger is to me – it isn't even my dominant hand!  And yet, because of it, I've had to push back several projects – including a long-awaited book release – that had been planned for months.  Everything takes so much longer to do. 

On the bright side, I'm not allowed to get that finger wet. I can't say I'm not enjoying being relieved of dish-washing duty.  I'm exploring Windows' speech-to-text capacities. I never knew before that my computer could do that. So I'm learning new things and the results, when my computer translates my voice into written words, are often pretty hilarious.

One of the best thing, though, is that I'm finally appreciating each one of my fingers individually.  I'll not be taking a full hand for granted ever again.  

And maybe each day, I'll try to think of one other thing I've never thought to be grateful for before.

Milou Koenings writes romance because, like chocolate, stories with a happy ending bring more joy into the world and so make it a better place.
 

Her sweet romance, Reclaiming Home, A Green Pines Romance, is available at Amazon.  You can find her on her website, www.miloukoenings.com, on Facebook, or Twitter. 

Her newest novella, Sweet Blizzard, is included in  Sweet Christmas Kisses 2, a USA Today bestselling anthology of  19 sweet Christmas novellas by award-winning authors.  

Here's a peek at all the enchanting stories awaiting you inside:

Amazon, Nook, Kobo, iBooks, Google

Sign up for our newsletter and keep up with Sweet Romance Reads! Scroll down the right side of our blog and enter your email address under Newsletter Signup.

Join us at the Sweet Romance Reads Cafe to chat with our authors. We love to hear from you!

The Gratitude Challenge by Shanna Hatfield

Each year I select one word as a personal theme that I intentionally focus on for the next 365 days.

 In 2014, I chose the word happiness. On Mondays, I blogged about happiness and lessons I'd learned about being happy.

The biggest lesson I learned is that happiness and gratitude are intimately entwined. Gratitude truly is the shortcut to happiness. 

The more gratitude we feel, the more happiness we own. It is as simple - and complex - as that.
It seemed natural to choose the word gratitude as my theme for 2015.
Although I am incredibly grateful for all the blessings in my life, I have an abundance of room for improvement. My hope is that by the end of this year, I will have learned some good gratitude lessons and filled my life with gratitude for all I have instead of continually seeking more.
I happened across this 52-week gratitude challenge on EstherandJacob.com

It seems like an easy way to focus on a particular area of gratitude each week. If all goes according to plan, I'll share my thoughts each Monday on my blog about that week's challenge.
I can hardly wait for next week to share about Captain Cavedweller!
Writers get to create the personalities of our characters. Some are kind, some are generous, some are grateful.
The one character I've written who exudes gratitude is Ty Lewis. He's an unemployed mechanic who, in a moment of desperation, accepts a job in the middle of nowhere. Grateful to have work, he heads off to the remote ranch where nothing is like he expects and everything is a learning experience.
I think I could take a lesson from Ty - in being grateful every day for this beautiful life I've been given.
What are you most grateful for as we begin this new year?

Learnin' The Ropes

 ***

A hopeless romantic with a bit of sarcasm thrown in for good measure, Shanna Hatfield is a bestselling author of sweet romantic fiction written with a healthy dose of humor. In addition to blogging and eating too much chocolate, she is completely smitten with her husband, lovingly known as Captain Cavedweller.

Shanna creates character-driven romances with realistic heroes and heroines. Her historical westerns have been described as “reminiscent of the era captured by Bonanza and The Virginian” while her contemporary works have been called “laugh-out-loud funny, and a little heart-pumping sexy without being explicit in any way.”

She is a member of Western Writers of America, Women Writing the West, and Romance Writers of America.

 

Find Shanna’s books at:

Amazon | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble | Smashwords | Apple

Shanna loves to hear from readers. Follow her online at:

ShannaHatfield | Facebook | Pinterest | Goodreads | You Tube | Twitter

Thanksgiving Traditionless - by Magdalena Scott

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.

Okay, it's my second favorite after my birthday, but as far as national holidays, I love Thanksgiving best. That's because the day is not about stuff, but about gratitude, and I am a huge fan of gratitude.

Maybe my love of this holiday is what caused my freakishly high distress level when I found myself again this year, officially Thanksgiving Traditionless.

My life has changed so much in the last several years, and somehow Thanksgiving never got its own plan. Easter has a tradition. Christmas Eve has one, and Christmas Day.

But wonderful, blessed Thanksgiving was going to arrive without appropriate planning by me.

It does, you know. It arrives whether we're ready or not. Suddenly on the fourth Thursday of November, everybody is giving thanks, and--hey! That's it, isn't it? All I really have to accomplish is that. I've already eaten two big turkey dinners, one with family and one with church family. I've shared hugs and good wishes and listened to a fabulous choir song, and watched children play. I've touched base with people I had lost track of, and been blessed by those relationships.

On the official day this year, I will have dinner with another group of family. One morning this weekend I may go walking with a dear friend. Saturday I get to attend a baby shower, and my kids are coming over afterward for board games and biscuit pizzas.

Turns out my Thanksgiving tradition this year is Giving Thanks. Maybe by 2015 I'll come up with something more "set in stone," but then again, maybe not. Being flexible can add to the joy of the journey, when I realize it's a blessing.

Magdalena

~~*~~

USA Today Bestselling Author Magdalena Scott is the author of several books in the Ladies of Legend, Tennessee series, and recently published Small Town Christmas, the first story in her new Serendipity, Indiana series. She loves to connect with readers, and invites everyone to visit her website, www.magdalenascott.com.

A Thanksgiving question: Who’s your cake baker? by Ginny Baird

When I reflect on this past year, I’m intrigued by something that touched me deeply. It was a Facebook post by fellow sweet romance writer Kristin Wallace, with whom I’d participated in the Sweet Christmas Kisses bundle. She’d shared her wonderful news about becoming a USA Today Bestselling Author, and several of her author friends had baked her a cake. Brought champagne, even. How very lovely.

Isn’t that the kind of connection we all long for? People who will support us in good times and in hard, and who will be there when we need them? What can be more special than sharing an achievement with that sort of person and having him or her celebrate right along with us?

I suppose we’ve all had our “cake bakers” throughout ours lives. Maybe yours was a parent or a sibling? Perhaps a certain teacher, or a mentor of another sort? One thing I’ve learned is that none of us needs a passel, as long as we’ve got one solid someone in our corner. Even if, during those toughest times, we had to rely on a higher power, or be a “cake baker” for ourselves.

When I think of being grateful this Thanksgiving, I’m mindful of the family and friends who’ve stood by me during every step of my journey. No doubt you’ve had your “cake bakers” too. What a fitting holiday to acknowledge these individuals and all that they’ve given us over time. May the candles on your cake burn brightly, this season and beyond!

~ * ~

Ginny  Baird writes sweet romance and romantic comedies, often centering on holidays and those who’ve given up on finding true love. Her contribution to the Sweet Christmas Kisses bundle is Mistletoe in Maine, a story about a single mom who finds a new future in Maine. Find the USA Today bestselling box set Sweet Christmas Kisses: Fourteen Sweet Christmas Romances at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, Kobo and Google.