Today is World Gratitude Day.

According to http://www.holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/September/worldgratitudeday.htm, the roots of World Gratitude Day can be traced to a Thanksgiving dinner at the International East-West Center in Hawaii in 1965.  At the dinner, attendees pledged to hold a Gratitude Gathering the following September 21st in their home countries. From these beginnings, World Gratitude Day grew to be an annual event.

The United Nations Meditation Group created World Gratitude Day to express appreciation for the great things that individuals and groups do. This recognition is on a global basis. According to their website: “World Gratitude Day presents an award to someone who we feel has done something outstanding in the spirit of Globalism.”

(I wasn’t able to find any information about the United Nations Meditation Group, and I did not find their website. I only did a quick Google search and only looked at the first page of results, so maybe the information is out there and I didn’t dig deep enough. I did find some references to the United Nations Meditation Room, such as this website: http://www.aquaac.org/un/medroom.html.

I started out 2014 focusing on gratitude, not just for people and groups, but for everything positive in my life. For nearly the first four months of the year, every day I wrote down three to five things for which I was thankful. I slacked off in the middle of April, and didn’t get back into the habit of writing down the people, events, and things for which I was grateful.

It seems like when life is hard, it is actually easier for me to express gratitude because the little bits of positivity really shine. When life is fairly easy, I don’t tend to stop and focus on being thankful. However, even if I’m not making written notes, I do recognize that I am so blessed and fortunate!  I have a lot for which to be grateful.

In celebration of World Gratitude Day, I wanted to share some of my gratitude from 2014. I wrote the following words in my (dumpstered) day planner:

I’m grateful for my LED lantern, my warm fuzzy hat, my memory foam mattress, not being hungry.

I’m grateful for my laptop, free Grateful Dead downloads, my radio, my sister, and money from Dad.

I’m grateful for sunshine, shiny rocks, the smell of sage, a warm place to sleep.

The trip was snowy and dark. I’m grateful I made it home safely.

I’m grateful for glue sticks and scissors. I’m grateful when people appreciate my creativity. I’m grateful for the ability to make something cool out of scraps and trash.

I’m grateful for the sound of a flock of pigeons flying up from the ground.

I’m grateful for wild nature.

I’m grateful for every star in the New Mexico sky.

I’m thankful for a clean bathtub with massaging jets. I’m glad for long soaks in hot water.

I’m grateful for laughter.

I’m grateful I was able to help traveling kids a little.

I’m grateful to wake up happy when other people are grumpy.

I’m grateful of the golden light of late afternoon.

I’m thankful to have enough to give away.

For what are you grateful?