Last year one of my goals was to keep a gratitude journal. I saw on Facebook that someone kept a happiness jar where they wrote down the things that had made them happy throughout the year. I decided I loved the idea, and I was going to give it a try. I recruited a few others, but I don’t know if they stuck with it.
I loved writing the little things throughout the year. As the jar filled up with colorful bits of paper just looking at it would often make me smile. This morning before I did anything else I emptied the jar and read all the things that I had put in the jar in 2022. Somethings I remembered like “Fun girls’ trip to Miami” or “amazing time with family in Jamaica” but other things like “nice lunch with Debbie or Cristina or Kim or Patrice, Lynda, and Rewa” or “long walk with Pam” or “fun evening playing cards” or “enjoying my class today” or “the kids cooked me dinner” or “hanging with Kerry at Sebastian’s baseball game” are not things that I may have remembered.
Each slip of paper I read this morning made me smile. As I was reading them, I also thought about lots of other great moments that I did not remember to write down.
2022 had its difficulties for me. Many of them health related. We can fall into a trap of focusing only on the negative or the challenges. This helped remind me that it was also a great year filled with new adventures and lots of love. I have put the now empty jar back on the mantle and can’t wait to see what joys will fill it in 2023.
