I am grateful for strawberries.
And strawberry jam.
And lunchables.
These three things have elicited an unexpected tight hug and a “thank you mom” from my oldest son this week.
As the week winds down, I could get caught up in thinking about the stressors of this week. I could consider the moments of uncertainty, the moments of disagreement, the moments of unexpected anxiety.
Or, I could pause to be grateful.
Even more challenging, however, I could pause to be grateful not for my stuff but for the things that make those I love be moved to gratitude themselves.
I don’t know if I ever considered gratitude in this way before – being grateful for the things that others are grateful for. Most of the time, when I try and meditate on gratitude, I list my stuff. I list what served me and strengthened me and gave me joy. Even if I list gratitude for someone else or someone else’s joy – I have to admit even that is often (even unintentionally) about how their joy has impacted me.
But what if I simply paused to be grateful for the things that impacted someone else.
I don’t particularly care for strawberries. I don’t like jam. I’m well past the desire for lunchables. But these and many other things have brought light to the eyes of my oldest son this week, a light that has often been a little dim this pandemic year.
So, this morning I’m pausing to be grateful for strawberries, strawberry jam, lunchables, long conversations about the origins of dinosaurs and whether or not chickens and dogs could mate and somehow bring back the dinosaurs (yea that one definitely caught me off guard).
I am pausing to be grateful for another’s joy.
Join me?
