52 Graces

I have finally come out of the closet with one of my new favorite past times: watching Oprah. Oprah has been my dirty little secret for the past 2 years. She merits "dirty little secret" status because I always thought it was just a little too cliche the stay-at-home-watching-Oprah (and eating bonbons, yes?). Well, I don't care if it's cliche, I think Oprah has a great mix of the practical, the spiritual, the political, and the entertaining. I finally got the nerve to add her to my Season Pass list on TiVo. When I was a-watching my TiVo'd Oprah show yesterday I was really impressed by her message that everything starts with gratitude. First be grateful for your situation then you can assess if you need to change/improve it. This statement rings true in the same way that hearing a priest once say "If the only prayer you ever said was 'Thank You', that would be enough." rang true to me.

BUT there was dinner to cook, laundry to do, and a litter box to scoop so the gratitude message kinda got shelved.

Then my friend Deb calls and urges me to check out one of her favorite blogs http://juliestrauss.blogspot.com/. I check it out and there is Julie, talking about her commitment to being more grateful this year.

Then I read Deb's blog and she is blogging about her Graces.

Okay, God, I get it! Three times in one day is a really powerful way to deliver a message. How often am I banging my head saying "Give me a sign, Lord!" Well, I got this one.

Gratitude. Gratitude.

So I am jumping on board with the 52 Graces and will include each week something for which I am grateful. Deb and Julie photo document their graces, but I don't know if I'm cool enough or committed enough to figuring out how to upload photos to do that, so I might just have to paint a visual picture for y'all.

No time to start like the present so here it is: I am grateful for Oprah, Julie, and Deb. These three women are on the right track and are inspiring me to get on track too.

Thanks, ladies.