Today I’m grateful for Millie’s note.

11.30.2022

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I wasn’t sure if I was going to do my Attitude of Gratitude posts this year. I love the practice of reflecting on my blessings, but I knew this was going to be a super busy month and I wasn’t sure I was up for a daily commitment to journaling and posting. I was still wavering back and forth on whether or not I was going to do this, all the way up until about 10:30 p.m. on November 1. The thing that finally convinced me … a note from Millie.

Now let me tell you about Millie. Up until her retirement this past summer, Millie was the school secretary extraordinaire at the elementary school where I work. Millie knew the answer to every question, could make field trip arrangements in her sleep, and could fix a jammed photocopier like nobody’s business. She was always kind and helpful, and while I’m happy for her that she’s living the retired life now, she is greatly missed at school.

Millie and I became Facebook friends at some point over the last couple of years so I knew she knew that I’d done this Attitude of Gratitude thing. She’d comment here and there about things I’d posted. But this summer when she retired she sent hand-written notes to the staff to let us know about her decision, and in her note to me she told me she was excited for November to come because of my posts. I was struck by this and took it as a compliment, but didn’t think too much about it since November was pretty far off. I have seen Millie a couple of times since then, at a happy hour and at her retirement party, and on both occasions she told me she would be eager to see my posts come November. I was kind of surprised, and also humbled by her repeated mention of this.

So there I was on November 1 at 10:30 p.m., laying on the couch, exhausted after a long day and was trying to decide if I was in for another year of thankfulness posts or not. And, I couldn’t stop thinking about Millie and her sweet note to me over the summer. And then, before I knew it, I was opening up my laptop to write. Millie’s kind encouragement turned my maybe to a yes.

Now, as I sit on my couch on November 30, equally as tired as I was on the 1st, I’m grateful for having spent another month reflecting and writing. It’s a process I enjoy, but without this self-imposed challenge (and that little nudge from Millie) I likely wouldn’t have pushed myself to do it every day. I’m thankful for the accountability of expressing my gratitude in this way, and I appreciate how I’ve grown in self-discipline as a result. But mostly, I’m thankful to now be able to look back at the past month through a lens of gratitude.

If I’m being honest, much of my September and October was not spent in a thankfulness-minded headspace, so the conscious push to look for blessings in November was a shift I was desperately needing. The shift was slow and subtle, but as is always the case, the more I looked for blessings in my life, the more I seemed to find.

This past Monday morning I realized that I had a loose tooth in my mouth, which is clearly not supposed to happen once you’ve passed the age of 10 or so. I have a couple of dental implants and one of the crowns from the implants was wiggly. I called my dentist and was able to get in that afternoon after school. Turns out I’m going to need a new crown, which is definitely a big ol’ bummer. But, as I was driving home from the dentist all I could think about was how glad I was they were able to work me in so quickly, how lucky I was that the implant wasn’t damaged, and how thankful I was that I’d sprung for the better dental insurance this year. It hit me then, that my attitude had indeed shifted to gratitude over the past several weeks. I’m not so sure I would have had this same reaction a month ago.

Not everything is going to be sunshine and rainbows over here, but I am committed to continually challenging myself to look for the blessings in my day. It really does make a difference to me.

Now, I would be remiss if I didn’t also tell you that Millie has another connection to my gratitude posts – one that she may not even know about. Not only was she the catalyst for me to start my posts up again this November, she was an important part of my very first Attitude of Gratitude post way back on November 1, 2019.

So, as I close out this month of thankfulness, I’m grateful for Millie’s encouraging nudge to get it started. And I’m thankful for my renewed attitude of gratitude that came as a result.