I think it’s fair to say that I think a lot about gratitude. I called this blog the grateful years because for the last several years finding gratitude each day has become very important to me.

Raising my children, working full time, and helping to take care of grandchildren kept me pretty busy. I jumped out of bed each day with good intentions but generally ended up drinking coffee and mindlessly scrolling on my iPad to get my day started. By the time I was feeling fully awake, I was already late. I’d throw on clothes and hit the road, oftentimes not even stopping for breakfast but instead picking up some fast food breakfast treat along the way. I frequently chose fast food over cooking to feed myself.

At some point that caught up to me and I became ill. I was eating poorly, running hard, and I really don’t like to exercise so I didn’t make time for that. I finally became ill and I just had to stop. I spent some time visiting doctors, having tests and found that the fix was a big lifestyle change. I cut out the terrible food, starting eating more plant based, drinking less and found a way to slow down and take care of myself better. I still don’t like to exercise and struggle to find a way to get motivated to do so. While trying to build new habits that serve me better the first one to stick is writing three things I am grateful for each day.

My days now start, almost always, with coffee, gratitude, word games and writing. Then I eat breakfast and move on to the other things on my not so crowded agenda. It has taken some time (retiring helped) but I have learned to appreciate my morning routine as my most constant form of self care. It all comes back to gratitude and every thing I accomplish makes me more grateful.

I think it’s clear that I have gone through quite a few changes in the past couple of years and I don’t think I expected that this is how my sixties would feel. I’m not sure if this is typical for this time in a person’s life. If you have thoughts, I would be interested in hearing them, please feel free to leave a comment.

I’m grateful you took the time to read what I have to say.