I have not pondered on the porch in two days! I have been so sick with a stomach virus these last two days. Don’t know where I picked it up. I’ve been home all week except for a grocery pickup and a quick stop at Dollar General. Probably got it from the pickup window at Jacks! Smile. I have been so pitiful trying to eat a few soda crackers and a few sips of Sprite but couldn’t keep anything down till this afternoon. Actually felt like sitting on the porch tonight and watching the sunset. Mother Nature did not disappoint me as she brushed her watercolors across the twilight sky in pastel pinks and blues and mauves and purples as the sun slipped down the horizon. When lightning bugs turned on their little night lights and lit up the twilight like twinkling stars light the night sky, I picked up Penelope and came in the house.

Been thinking about gratitude yesterday and today. Thinking of thankfulness, too. They kinda go together. Gratitude is defined as feeling grateful for the good things in your life. Thankfulness is defined as the feeling of being happy or grateful because of something. Lots of times all the things we take for granted are things we should be grateful for — clean water, friends and family, a home, food on the table. I was thinking as I lay in bed feeling so pitiful and so nauseated that I should be ashamed to be crying with a stomach virus when there are so many suffering from cancer and other illnesses, fighting for their lives from debilitating diseases, suffering in hospitals without family or loved ones by their sides.

I’m grateful to have Cokes and Sprites in my refrigerator and a big box of soda crackers in my kitchen pantry. I’m grateful for my window unit air conditioner that kept me cool and comfortable in my bed. So many things we should be grateful for and we never worry about them. We just assume the sun will rise and the car will crank.

Research says there are three parts of gratitude — feeling grateful for all the good things in your life; expressing gratitude to the people who have made your life better; and adopting new behaviors after interacting with those who have helped you. I think gratitude is an attitude of appreciation for the gifts God has placed in our daily life. Gratitude involves being thankful. Thankfulness is a temporary emotion and will fade away but gratitude will always stay with us.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 reads, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” Gratitude plays such an important role in life. When trials and changes come into our every day life our gratitude doesn’t falter. We know unhappy days are just a part of life and we accept that. Gratitude helps us be happy with the life we lead and helps us be thankful for what we have.

Gratitude is a special gift from God to us. When we find it hard to be grateful, we are reminded that everything happens according to God’s will and he already knows the path we’ll travel. God will give us the strength to move whatever obstacles block our path. By being grateful to God we’ll have joy and peace in our lives.

“Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.” — William Arthur Ward