Thankful To Have Made It Through A Month Of Thankfulness

It's always interesting, when I set a goal for myself, to see how I do. I'm a bit of an all-or-nothing type (not necessarily a good thing), and once I latch on to a discipline challenge I can get very bull-headed about finishing what I vowed to do, so I need to choose carefully among the array of challenges that are available. With The November 30 Day Thanksgiving Challenge, as I have admitted before, I plunged in on a whim. What kept me going?

1. I know myself well enough to realize that if I missed a day I would give it up completely (because, as I say, I am an all-or-nothing kind of gal), and then I would have publicly embarrassed myself, since I was doing this on my blog, in front of God and everyone else.

2. I truly benefited from being thankful. I began to really focus all the ways I was blessed, and I began to catch myself becoming a kind of Pollyanna-ish positive thinker, finding silver linings to every single cloud that floated across my little piece of the sky. It was weird! Example: we were driving back from spending Thanksgiving Day at my sister's, barrelling down the Tri-State, and we hit one of those sections of pavement that for some reason have a rhythmic wave in them. My daughter and I were feeling like the back seat of the Honda was not unlike a mechanical bull ride. We both made a comment of complaint to each other. And then, I actually found myself saying "But this certainly isn't as bad as it was for the pioneers when they had to ride in wagons over rough ground!" All because I saw that comedy clip about how we should appreciate the benefits of modern life!

When I challenged myself to the month of daily posts, I had no idea there was such a thing as NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month). Shannon mentioned that she was participating in that over on her blog, so I decided to throw my hat in the ring for that.

Then, in various places, I saw that there were other bloggers trying to make their November more thankful. That's pretty exciting, don't you think? It's as though a strange but wonderful cultural phenomenon is underway, perhaps a reaction to the economic crisis, perhaps a reaction to the exhausting ugliness we had to witness in the media during the election run-up, or maybe just something else nudging us to return to a pleasanter, more civilized, more spiritual approach to life. Whatever it is, bring it on! Keep it going! If I can think of a way to encourage it in myself, my family, or beyond, I certainly will do it.

I'd like to thank the fellow bloggers who signed on to share in the challenge. I know that for some of you life intervened, and you weren't able to keep up with it quite like you may have wanted. Nevertheless, I enjoyed going to your blogs and seeing what you were thankful for, and your presence kept me accountable as well. Maybe I'll do this again next November.

Keep on being thankful, everybody!!