I have been reading a lot lately…like probably still not G’s level of reading, but a lot. In fact, I have so many things I want to talk about, but I need to wait. We are doing a little brainstorming about the blog in 2022, so I want to wait on some of these things. I don’t want to just throw out some blog about a crazy interesting topic just to have it barely read because, let’s face it, the holidaze has arrived. 

However, I did read this tiny little post on IG by @jessaconnolly and I was like, YES!! One hundred times YES! 
If you have been around the block with us, you know how much we believe in gratitude. It’s a real practice of faith, love, physical and mental well being and the part that Jess nailed? She called the act of practicing gratitude, spiritual warfare. 
Full stop right here.Spiritual warfare.

Sometimes even when I hear myself tell someone to practice gratitude I feel like I should preface it by saying I know it sounds new agey, but it really works. It’s not new agey or hippy-dippy or whatever phrase you want to use to downplay it though. It’s real and difficult and it’s about being resilient in the face of despair, hardship, and negativity. Practicing real-life gratitude takes courage. It’s hard as you know what! This is a PG blog, so I won’t spell it out for you, but being grateful, thankful appreciative in difficult moments is not easy. 

It’s the season of celebrations and gifts and stress and chaos and deadlines and feeling bad about ourselves because another year has gone by and we didn’t accomplish our goals or lose the weight and our pant size went up… again. You get the idea. This is the time to be a warrior. This is the time to get resilient and not let those things get in the way of being grateful. 

Whatever the thing that you are lamenting is. Stop now. We are not any of those things. We are beautiful human beings who are here. At this moment there might be a million other things happening. But we are still here. Be thankful for your health, running water, your home, heat, transportation, your family of origin or the one you created, relationships, food, clothing, the list goes on and it’s all the little things and big things. There are so many things to be grateful for and yet we stumble. We forget. We get caught in the net of lies that tell us that we aren’t good enough; that our situation isn’t good enough and all the ways in which we could be better. 

Having goals is great, but just for this season how about we stop and appreciate what we do have? How about we choose gratitude over shame? How about we choose to be thankful in the face of our adversity and we write down 5 things we are grateful for each day? What might happen in the course of these next 8 weeks if we chose a radical new way of looking at this mess we call our life? What if we went into battle against all the negativity? Could you do it? Would you be willing to try? 

Sunshine & Sarcasm,
Lowi & G