I have been completely absent for about 6 months now, but thankfully, two new emails this last week alerted me to a new follower (so glad to have you following me and for you wanting to read what I have to say) has catapulted me into wanting to get this blog back on track and made me want to start writing again. I’ve missed this. I find it funny how all it takes is one small thing to get us back to what we love to do.

Do you find that to be true? That sometimes it’s the small things that make the biggest difference? Often we simply get through each day without much thought. We go through the motions but life feels sort of blah. Nothing big is happening and so we check out and just survive. That’s not how it is meant to be friends. We are meant to thrive not just survive. What does thriving look like? We know what surviving looks like. We get up, get dressed, do what needs to be done, crawl into bed at the end of the day, get up and do it all over again the next day but not much brings us joy. We are only doing what needs to be done. Is that living? I’m thinking it isn’t.

Today, I would like to challenge you, and me, to make even the mundane more than just a “have to”. The mundane doesn’t have to be something we just survive. The mundane can be living in every moment. Seeing the beauty that each moment brings can be a daunting task for sure, but it is in the everyday that we get to be more, do more, see more, make the biggest difference in our lives and in the lives of those around us.

Let’s face it, BIG things only happen occasionally, but the little things happen all the time, every.single.day. How long has it been since you woke up and wondered in awe at the sun rising in the east or felt a light breeze on your face and thought to yourself, this is peace. How long has it been since you got up with the littles, heard them laugh and thought this is happiness? How long has it been since you got ready for work and thought this is me affecting change in those around me? How long has it been since you were fixing dinner for the fam and thought this is me meeting the needs of others?

How long? How long have you only survived instead of thrived? A little while? Weeks? Months? Longer than that? Don’t underestimate the power of the small things you can do every day in the everyday. It is there where you make the biggest difference. It is in those things of the mundane that you have grown so weary of that can bring you the greatest joy. No, life doesn’t always go as we plan, but maybe that’s the way it is supposed to be. Maybe what we plan isn’t the plan at all. Please, don’t misunderstand, our plans are important, but maybe your plans are not the higher or best plan.

Whether you believe in God or the universe or something else entirely, be certain that everything that happens to you happens for a reason. It could be something that is meant to grow you, slow you, or show you something. You may not always know or understand but in the end things always tend to work out. Maybe not the way you envisioned, but it did work out.

Give that some thought for a moment. Have there been things in your life that you weren’t sure how they were ever going to work out? They seemed too hard, too painful, too good to be true, and yet, one day you wake up and that thing that seemed too hard now comes easily. That thing that seemed too painful to get through isn’t as painful as it was yesterday or that thing that seemed too good to be true has started your journey to what is really good after all.

I have done several gratitude posts here on the blog and I think that is where the secret lies. When you can be thankful for every part of your day, the mundane, the small, the have too’s. The things we hate, the things we love, the things you don’t want to do, we begin to see our lives as full and worth living. Somewhere along the road you begin being thankful instead of miserable.

Gratitude doesn’t have to be only for the big things. Sometimes you have to start small. Today I am thankful for hot water, a toothbrush, clean undies. Start small being thankful for those things that seem sort of silly. Be thankful for a comfy couch to sit on, for dirty dishes, toilet paper. It doesn’t matter what you are thankful for, just be thankful.

I’d like to challenge you to Write a list of 10 things you are grateful for today. They do not need to be BIG things. It can be something simple, small, or mundane, but get that list started. Do it every day!! Write it down. See it. Read it. Believe it.