one thousand gifts

my newest favorite.  you should RUN (don't walk) and get it.  and pour a diet coke and settle in and read it.  today.  all. in . one. day.

i've just stumbled across ann voskamp and her wise and challening book, one thousand gifts.

i wandered into barnes and noble wednesday looking for it as a gift only to find out it won't be out til tomorrow except they let me buy it then.  who knew that happened. 

and i pretty much devoured as much of it as i could in those short hours.  and i am challenged.

my thoughts on ingratitude came from her writing on ingratitude. 

when i first read calm my anxious heart  many years ago, one of the habits that has most stuck with me is the practice of gratitude.  each morning as i start my quiet time, i write five things that i am specifically thankful for that day.  some days more pour off the page.  some days i hear crickets as i try to think of what i will choose to be grateful for that day. 

philippians 4:11-12 reminds us that thankfulness is something we learn.

I am not telling you this because I need anything. I have learned to be satisfied with the things I have and with everything that happens. I know how to live when I am poor, and I know how to live when I have plenty. I have learned the secret of being happy at any time in everything that happens, when I have enough to eat and when I go hungry, when I have more than I need and when I do not have enough.

little by little, list by list, moment by moment we learn to be grateful for what God has given.  for me, it's been a list on my journal, for ann v, it is a list of 1000 gifts that is changing her perspective and helping her regain the thankfulness of eucharisteo

i'm going to join her in the journey of naming 1000 gifts ... not gifts i desire, but gifts i possess and pray that in the process, i am transformed from the selfish, ungrateful person i am to a person who lives in joy and grace because i have learned to be be grateful in all things.

1. diet coke
2. crackling of a fire in a fireplace
3. neat stacks of logs ready to be burned
4. hands that cut wood for me
5. kitchen aid mixer
6. stacks of colored paper
7. life viewed through the lens of a camera
8. cupcakes
9. letters written by nine year olds :-)
10. books
11. the "good tired" of a good workout
12. mapdots that represent friends all over the world
13. the amazing kids at global samaritans
14. holding a sweet baby
15. creating
16. cooking
17. itunes
18. turning off the tv and phone and soaking in something much more meaningful
19. the love of a family
20. people who "get" your heart
21. books ... new books
22. fresh herbs growing on my kitchen table in the middle of winter
23. sonic happy hour
24. women worshipping in spirit and in truth
25. long, lazy naps