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Ditching the Gratitude List
Confession: Thanksgiving has almost arrived, and I refuse to make a "gratitude list." It's a challenging time around here, and other people's lists of the fabulousness of life can leave me a little tweaked.  Maybe you, too, have found them to be 1) kind of boring, because they're not all about you, or 2) rather irritating because these people get to do stuff you don't, or 3) a bit sad, because they're happy and you're having a hard time of it. It's kind of like reading someone else's ecstatic FaceBook post on the worst day of your life.
Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about.
And yes, you can call me shallow. Way too often, it's all about me.
I'm just being honest here.
However, I know that God has given me (and you) much to be grateful for, and He knows that I (and maybe you) just need a creative, frequent reminder of the good stuff in this life. And, bless Him, He brought just that to me this week in the form of a newspaper column by Jann Malone who herself was once going through a nasty time...and discovered a fabulous way to appreciate her life even then.
While Jann was recovering from breast cancer, her husband gave her a special birthday present: a scrapbook and a writable CD--materials for a photo diary. And what she did with it was life-changing.
Every day she took a photograph of something good that happened in her life.
"That's not as easy as it sounds," she says. "Not because good things rarely happen. They do, all the time. The hard part is having the camera ready to record them.
"When I meet friends for lunch or a cup of coffee,  I take the camera. When I know someone's coming for a visit, I put the camera by the front door, so I won't forget to record the moment.
"Sometimes the day's photo op arrives gift wrapped, like the time everyone in my water aerobics class wore shower caps, artfully decorated with daisies, so I wouldn't feel uncomfortable visiting without any hair.
"Other days, it's more of a challenge. I've got shots of t he first bacon, lettuce and Hanover tomato sandwich of the season, a bowl of local peaches with vanilla ice cream and a container of blackberries, a gift from a neighbor.
"The challenging days don't always result in food photos. I have pictures of goldfish swimming among the water lilies in our pond and of the hot pink crape myrtle blooming in our back yard.
"Whatever kind of day they remind me of, my pictures probably won't win any photo contests, but that's not the point. The point is to record something good that happens.
"Even on the challenging days."
And if, at the end of the day, you haven't taken a picture yet, Jann offers my favorite piece of advice: get proactive and make something good happen!
 "I organize an expedition," she says. "To the Dairy Queen for a dipped cone. To Krispy Kreme twice, once  for 'hot doughnuts now,' and a second time to get a shot of the neon sign. OK, we got doughnuts the second time, too."
Brilliant.
Therefore, I'm inviting you to join me in doing the same--especially if you're going through some of those "challenging days." I'm going to keep a photo journal during Advent, from Thanksgiving to Christmas--no matter how time-crunched I get, no matter how often I find myself wondering how this much craziness can happen in a 24-hour period.
Because I'm pretty sure it'll be a season full of busyness and loneliness, of child-like joy and very adult sorrow, of wishes granted and longings unmet...with God waiting patiently to get our attention in the midst of it all. And I do believe we owe the Giver of every good and perfect gift a thank-you, at least.
So come along with me; take the time to see something good in each day this season, snap a photo of it, and put it in an album. I have a feeling that God will change us all because of our mindfulness, and I can't wait to see how He does it....how He'll write our stories in pictures, spawning some gratitude on Thanksgiving and beyond, all the way through Advent. And we'll arrive at Christmas Day with a pile of "gifts" that are too big to wrap...because somehow, in the journey, "all about me" will become all about Him.
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