I haven’t written in a little while. My excuse is “I had a lot going on” but really the truth is that I wasn’t sure how to express myself. Last weekend I had the opportunity to go to the California School Library Association conference. It was a fantastic event and I learned quite a bit. I don’t know very much about libraries in schools even though early on in my library career I was a school librarian, but it was for a very small private nonprofit Montessori school, so it wasn’t governed by the Clark County School District. I started writing about my trip several times, but I didn’t get very far with it and I couldn’t really figure out why. Don’t get me wrong, I love any opportunity to go to Southern California. I love everything about Southern California with the exception of the traffic. I love the weather (even though it rained the entire time I was there), I love that they put avocado on everything and it is so fresh sometimes picked right off a tree that day (try this place) https://www.caliburritobrothers.com/, and I love that I got to interact with so many people that weekend that are in a similar profession as I am. Over all it was a wonderful weekend, but it didn’t leave with me with very much to write about and I’m not sure why.
Let’s face it, I am rarely lacking in things to say. So, is it that I’m just not as grateful as I should be? How can I be more grateful for my experiences and take more time to notice more little things that are going on around me? Little things often make a big impact, but you have to choose to be present and observe them, otherwise they will pass you by and you’ll never notice the extraordinary things that could have made a huge difference to you.
From all of the books about leadership I know that one thing that people do is they have gratitude journals. I think that it is awesome that people write things that they are grateful for every day. I feel like I would constantly be writing about the same things (I grateful for my pups, my bunnies, my husband, my brother, my bestie, etc.) I am extremely grateful for all of those things every day. One new thing I am thankful for today is the snow that we got on Sunday evening and the snow that we are supposed to be getting on Thursday. I know that there are many people that are not thankful for snow but since I live in Las Vegas and we haven’t had snow in about 11 years it is actually pretty amazing! I know that once I figure out how to do it having a gratitude journal won’t be so challenging, but right now I feel like it is. I will have to find a book about gratitude and read it, so I know how to do it consistently without it seeming like a challenge.
I’ve been looking at several books on the topic and one thing that I have noticed when I read the descriptions for the books is that it seems like the majority of these books are faith based. Not that there is anything wrong with thanking a higher power for what you have, but why can’t I just be thankful? Why does it have to be specifically be directed at a god of some type? Why can’t I just be thankful for my cup of coffee and to the people that planted, harvested, roasted, brewed and prepared the coffee beans so I could enjoy it? They are who I am thankful for, not an imaginary force.
Maybe I’ll understand more about gratitude after I read a couple books and more about the reasons to be thankful to something that I don’t believe in, but what I’m really looking for is someone to tell me how to be more observant of everything going on around me and how to be grateful for it. I feel like the world is kind of just passing us all by right now (this kind of goes along with one of my previous posts). I guess that old saying is true about not knowing what we have until it’s gone. I don’t want that to be the case for me. I’m reading Dare to Lead by Brene Brown, and she makes a very good point about how she wrote what she needed to read. Maybe that will have to be something that I do if I can’t find a book about how to be grateful without bringing religion into it. If you have read a book like this, please let me know! It might save me a ton of time a frustration and if I happen to find one, I will let you know!
Until then try to be grateful to whoever you want or no one in particular. Just be grateful.
