I am a quote person and I blame it all on Mr. Foor-Hogue, my high school chemistry teacher. Every day when we would walk into class we would have to enter the quote of the day he had written on the upper left hand side of the chalkboard into our chemistry journal. Of course there was the usual grumbling by the all knowing teenagers, but secretly, I loved his quotes. I could not give you one abbreviation off the periodic chart, but I memorized a lot of his quotes. Maybe that was his point: the left brain and the right brain can collide and survive. Mr. Foor-Hogue, this is 25+ years too late, but I am grateful for you. Because of your small, thoughtful action, I have noticed and collected quotes from everywhere possible. I find them in bathrooms, on tshirts, in song lyrics, on bumper stickers, on signs in stores, on bulletin boards, in letters from relatives and from the mouths of my children. And most of my quotes have to do with GRATITUDE, the final attribute in the seven characteristics of happy people.
I have decided to share a few with you today.
"It's not happy people who are thankful, it is thankful people who are happy." I saw this on a sign for sale in TJMaxx.
"Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness just to be happy." Guilllaume Apollinaire
"The happiest people don't have the best of everything, they just make the best of everything." Inspirational quote website.
"It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you have." Sheryl Crow, Soak Up the Sun
And my favorite that I saw on a tshirt many, many moons ago: Gratitude is the New Attitude!
I should have purchased that shirt. Non-buyers remorse.
I have a chalkboard serving tray a dear friend of mine made me when I moved from Austin to Cary. I frequently think of writing, "If you're going to give me attitude, it better be in the form of gratitude" and then I want to snap my fingers three times, crossing my body. Um hmm...you go, girl.
Gratitude. This is the easiest word on the list and probably the least used. I remember living in Greenville, NC and I was working for a small business right after graduation. Sometimes on my way home I would make a quick stop at Harris Teeter. There was a young man with Down's Syndrome who was employed as a bagger. He always had a gigantic warm smile to share and a small tidbit about his day. One evening he was excited because Friday was only two days away and it was pay day! Whoop! "Oh!, I said, "Friday is a very special day!" He looked at me with a tilted head and frankly reminded me, "No m'am, every day is a special day.". I hugged that sweet boy, cried on the way home and carried that message around in my heart all these years. Gratitude.
Forrest Gump is a beautiful example of gratitude. It's the simplicity of this word that is astounding. And the funny thing is we can all achieve and own gratitude. But again, like happiness, it's a choice. My daughter and I each have a gratitude journal. We are pretty faithful about entering the daily occurrences in our lives for which we are thankful. This past week, we had four unexpected snow days. There was a lot of grumbling by parents about another day stuck at home with the children. And I get that. But there was another voice starting to filter in through the frustrated tweets. "Thank you for keeping our children safe." Many parts of our county had icy road conditions. "Thank you for amazing memories with our kiddos!" And photos of snow people, sledding, forts, snowball fights, and recipes for snow cream filled my computer screen. Unexpected moments of happy. Anna and I are both grateful for our steep driveway that people sometimes grumble about for various reasons. For you see, we had our own personal ski slope for three action packed days that we happily shared with our neighborhood friends. It was epic and I will always be grateful for the red cheeks, the watery eyes, the snow covered clothes, the pink fingers and the ginormous smiles that exuded gratitude a thousand times over.
Gratitude. Pass it on. It will be the best free thing you do all day. And for the record, you can quote me on that!
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