Thankful Thursday

When I look up the meaning of thankful and grateful, the definitions are extremely similar. Grateful, according to google's definition, is: "feeling or showing an appreciation of kindness; thankful." And Thankful, according the same google page, is: "expressing gratitude and relief." To me, gratitude is bigger. It is about an attitude. Maybe it is fair to say an attitude of thanksgiving. But when I think about practicing gratitude, I think about a lifestyle, attitude, practice. I picture thanksgiving as an act. When I think of being Thankful or giving thanks for something, I think of a singular act and my reaction to it. But for today's blog, Thankful Thursday is adequate for a title because I can't find a day of the week that starts with G. Grateful Gursday? Or Griday? You get the picture. I am choosing to be thankful TODAY and that is part of something bigger, a life filled with gratitude.

I am working with diligence to build a healthier lifestyle. Less refined sugar, no soda (and there's always exceptions to this, especially since I have a deep love for Coca~Cola), more movement, and fewer processed and heavy foods. So far I feel wildly successful. I will just need to figure out a way to keep it convenient when school starts and keep going. But with this journey comes the need for accountability. So I inquired on the infamous facebook about who want to help me with accountability. And the response was fantastic!! I realized that I could not have 6+ accountability partners! So I formed a group on fb. And we have been sharing our lives there. Sharing about foods we eat, water intake, exercise, when we eat in ways that are unhealthy, and so on. Within the group, we have formed some accountability partnerships. We started on a Wednesday. Which makes Wednesday accountability day. That is the day we make ourselves vulnerable to the few and share the good, the bad, and the ugly. And we share one good in the group. This group has fueled me. I can't wait to share SOMETHING with these ladies every day! And almost everyday I post asking my friends if someone wants to get in their daily movement with me. Walking mostly. That is my "thing". But last night we went to pool and walked the lazy river. An option from 7-8 pretty much every day. I do not know for sure how many times we walked it. And one of my friends said it's 11 laps to make a mile. So we maybe didn't even make a mile. But that is OKAY. Because it was work and fun at the same time.

Thankful Thursday. I am thankful that this group of ladies has entered my life in a new way. Some of them have been among my friends for a long time, some of them are new friends. Some live close and some live far away. But we are encouraging each other along our journeys today.

Today, on Thankful Thursday I am GRATEFUL for:

• My Health and Accountability Group
• The ability to learn and further my education
• My sobriety/clean time
• My checkered past
• My children
• My dogs
• My home
• A great "job" (being a teacher is not a job, it's an identity and a calling)
• Life
• Art:  crafting, tiedye!, painting, blogging (writing in any form), and.... (drumroll) gardening

The list goes on. A teacher in summer. I am getting my craft on. Which mostly translates into a lot of tiedying. But I also painted a metal wall hanging and made it look artsy. I will take a picture of that today.  My garden is art. For so many reasons. It does the same thing for my spirit that drawing, crafting and tiedye do. But in it's messy glory, I carefully chose where each plant would go and what colors would be together. And to you it may look disorganized, to me it is a little piece of joy.

So much to be thankful for. Living a life of gratitude.

Go to Big Time Literacy to read about what others are doing this month to keep writing alive in their soul. Blogging is soul food. btbc#17