Blog

                I picked up Discover Yourself Through Gratitude: A Journal this past Tuesday morning and opened to a random selection and choose, "Who is your best friend and why". I immediately started journaling about gratitude for my wife Becky and the amazing woman that she has always been and continues to be. It was very natural as I listed all of the reasons I think she is wonderful. It felt good to do this and it changed my mood.

                Within a few hours, I read another article on Linked-In from a man I greatly admire. He wrote about how important it is that his kids and his grandkids see a deep love he feels for his wife, he said it will be instrumental in how deeply they love their spouses. The stars aligned and it came through crystal clear in that moment. Sometimes I come home from work stressed out and not in a good mood. This night, however, I was beaming (largely in part of the journal entry). At the dinner table, I said, "Who wants to lead prayer tonight" as I usually do. My daughter (3 years young and so cute) chimed in and said a few words of thanks for our food and our new house. After her prayer, I immediately started talking about my journal entry and the gratitude for my wife and my children's mother is. It was palpable because I can blow hot air with the best of them, but I really do think the world of my amazing wife, and my words were not just spoken, they were felt. I spoke of how she cooks for all of us, she cleans for all of us, she does the laundry for all of us, she gives hours of her time and unconditional love to play with our kids, she is patient, she is centered, she is kind, she is organized, she is beautiful and she knows how to love better than anyone I know. I could tell that my kids were right with me, they heard me and started chiming in about how wonderful their mom is. This meant a lot to my wife, I could tell immediately. I think it's safe to say that being a full-time parent can be a thankless job. This family dinner became a conversation on gratitude and this one conversation changed our future dinnertime conversations, I felt it. Gratitude has always been a part of our family, but something shifted at this dinner and I think we all felt it. It was powerful.

                So then that night, I shared the story for my friends. It felt good to share this story because the experience was authentic and heartfelt. When I arrived home, my wife was in a great mood, I could feel the gratitude for my wife. I've been someone who has lived most of their life crippled by the intellect and this story transpired from somewhere very different... the heart. So finally, at my Toastmasters meeting this past Wednesday, during impromptu speaking (which I love) I revisited the story once more and the people in that room were impacted, I could see it in their eyes as I shared. While it may sound cliché, I'm grateful to finally start to understand gratitude. I've spoken of gratitude for the past 20 years, but this one story has shifted what gratitude means to me. And it has propelled me to want to experience more of it.