Thankful

Perhaps you remember when I wrote about the gratitude jar last year. If not, let me refresh your memory: click. Because I already started late, and was in the middle of yet another international move, I didn't think I would keep it going. But lo and behold...

I did! Every Sunday without fail I would write something I was thankful for. Not always the most inspired of things, but I wrote nonetheless. Occasionally I would write during the week as well. When something really momentous had happened. 

With my mum at the orchid farm

Yesterday I transcribed the lot and there was definitely a pattern. I thanked my parents a lot (in fact, three weeks in a row at one point) for letting me live here. I thanked work a lot. Getting a job, continuing the job, returning to work. There were also plenty of health related posts. From the good (no headache for a week, good news at the gynaecologist) to the bad (gall bladder and headaches), but still thanking medication, doctors and nurses.

I thanked the fun things: Duncan Laurence outright for winning Eurovision for the Netherlands, seeing Cats, seeing We Will Rock You with my mum, going to the zoo with my sister, seeing Rome with my sister, visiting my sister, going to the orchid place with my mum. I never mentioned the sand sculpture thing I visited with my parents, but I am thankful in retrospect!

Here are a couple I felt stood out!

10.02.2019: I am thankful for aunties who don't need to hear the whole story, but just comfort you when you need it.

The good health care was definitely something I was thankful for!

28.03.2019: I am thankful for people who recognise me and believe in me, resulting (finally) in a job starting this Sunday.

09.04.2019: I am thankful for my pay check! Money

16.06.2019: I am thankful for being home alone for nearly three weeks. No tennis, darts, cycling, football or whatever! Bliss

11.08.2019: I am thankful for my Kindle coming back to life, after it was nearly drowned.

10.11.2019: I am thankful for the continuing job; friends who got married and I was invited to celebrate; no headaches to speak of; plenty of time to make stuff in. Life is better than I sometimes feel it is.

Brom in Rome

Writing all those things down at the time is one thing, going over the list again yesterday has made me realise that despite the things that are still not working properly in my life, there are so many more things that do. I might not have the job I want (yet), or a place of my own (yet), I might still have headaches and migraines (grrr), but all in all, I have a good life. 

I will continue this year with the gratitude jar and hope there will be plenty more things to be very thankful for!

The gratitude jar

At the end of last year, as I was staying at my sister's, she had something on her Facebook about gratitude jars. I thought it sounded like a wonderful idea and I asked her about it again after a few days. By then she couldn't find it anymore on her Facebook, but she said there were plenty of places online where you could find information about it. And then I forgot all about it! Typical.

Then today, grasping around in the back of my head for inspiration for a new post, I came upon it again. I looked up some of the information online, but it's basically like this: Every day/week/month you write a little dated note about what you feel thankful for. Then, at the end of a pre-set date (Thanksgiving for those of you who celebrate it, or Christmas, a birthday, New Year) or when the jar is full, you open it again and re-read what it is you wrote. 

And there are no limits to what you can be thankful for: your dog not pooping in the house anymore, your husband doing the dishes, your children baking you a chocolate cake, the sun coming up in the morning! Anything. Of course, as I hadn't started when I wanted to start (January 1st), I had to cast around a bit in my mind about what made me feel thankful in the first two weeks of this year. 

For my first week? I am thankful that the company I work for now were very understanding when I told them I was leaving and that even in a period where there is very little work, they still let me work several days a week. And for my second week? I am thankful that Stena are kind enough to wait for me on the occasions I am running a bit late and that they give me plenty of food to keep me sustained!

I will not be posting about what I am thankful for each week. But I do hope I will be continuing putting my thankful notes in my little jar and I will be taking it to the Netherlands in the car as well. My opening date will most likely be New Year's Eve, or when the jar is full, whichever comes first.