My shift into living a life anchored in gratitude began on a chilly Thanksgiving Day several years ago when my husband, Greg, and I were in the middle of remodeling our 1922 prairie-style bungalow. For the first eight years of our married life, we slept in the attic, in a room with no insulation and we shared a bathroom that was smaller than a telephone booth. At last we were able to add a second floor to the house but in order to do the much-needed renovations, we had to move out for almost a year. On the day before that Thanksgiving enough of the remodeling had been completed so that we could move back in, well almost. Even then we had virtually no furniture. Bare bulbs hung from wires in some of the rooms, and two inches of dust covered the window sills, the floors and two small tables in our living room. Four million boxes needed unpacking and we had no heat. At that moment, on that Thanksgiving Day, life was well short of paradise.

Between unpacking the necessary cooking utensils and listing the things the contractor had yet to address, I prepared our Thanksgiving dinner. Standing at my new stove while stirring the gravy and trying to get warm, I felt anything but grateful. Here I was back in my house; I finally had a lovely new bedroom, a bathroom large enough for a bathtub, and walls with double the normal amount of insulation. All the cracks in the plaster were repaired, the wiring was new, and the windows were sealed tightly with quality weather stripping. Still, I was so depressed and angry that even after a year of living in a small apartment, it would take many more months before the contractor finished. Any feeling of gratitude for all my good fortune eluded me.

But then I tasted my gravy. It was perfect. Greg had found two of our nice china plates and some silverware and had set our makeshift dinner table. He had surprised me that morning with a bouquet of fresh flowers. They looked lovely on the table. Why was I still so unhappy? I looked out my new kitchen window and thought about my current state of mind. I remembered then that in my years of reading and studying, I had found that the practice of being grateful, of feeling gratitude and saying “thank you” to Spirit for all the things happening in one’s life were primary tenets of every religious, spiritual and philosophical system I had explored. I recalled that making a list of things for which you were grateful seemed to “lighten your load” in stressful times. I could not imagine more stress than I now felt standing in my kitchen. So when Greg and I sat down to dinner, instead of our usual discussions about the uneven floor tiles, the missing light fixtures and the length of time it took anyone to do what he had promised to do I decided we would try a different tack. We would take turns and tell each other all the things we were grateful for that day, all the things that were going right. And so we did. The rest of the afternoon flew by. Both of us got more accomplished, had more energy and felt more light-hearted than we had in a long, long time.

In the following days I thought about that afternoon. I picked up some of my books and began once again to read about gratitude. Before going to sleep each night I asked Greg to list five things he was grateful for that day, five things that went right. Then I did the same. It became our nightly ritual, the last thing before we kissed each other and turned off the lamp. The change in my attitude was rapid and profound. While driving, I began to say “thank you” out loud when the traffic lights turned green. I expressed thanks to Spirit when any little thing was completed correctly in my never-ending house remodel; and gave heartfelt, sincere thanks to the person who spent many hours helping me reconnect our computer. Deliberate, conscious gratitude I offered for these blessings. Everyday I felt better. More things went right and life flowed more smoothly. My frustration lessened. Laughter in our house increased. By the completion of the remodeling both my house and I stood transformed. Being consciously grateful, saying thank you to the universe for the little things that went right, I truly understood the power of gratitude. The positive experiences in my life and the happiness I now feel a majority of the time, so far outweigh the negative things that happen to me in a day that it is difficult to imagine the life I lived before. My mantra has become the words of the Buddha, “Give thanks for what has been given you, however little. Be pure and never falter.” And to my bathroom mirror I have attached a card with the words of Rabbi Harold Kushner: “If you concentrate on finding the good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures your soul.”

From my heart, nurtured and strengthened by embracing gratefulness, came the Gratitude Meditation. I invite you to click the tab labeled, “Gratitude Meditation” and begin your journey to a joy-filled life.