When I was a child, my mum used to go on about Pollyanna. She loved that story and tried to follow Pollyanna’s example, being grateful for all the little things in life. I found the girl rather nauseating; too good to be true and sickly sweet.

Now however, I am beginning to see some value in the idea. The other day I read on social media about keeping a Grateful Diary. I’ve decided it might not be such a bad thing to do. My son gave me a beautiful journal for my birthday, so I’m going to make it into my daily thoughts of gratitude. It’s my way of keeping  all the negativity at bay. It seems overwhelming at the moment. Every news item, every post on social media seems focussed on the same topic. Fear, panic and the question of ‘What should I be doing to protect everyone I love?’ roll around in my mind, as it seems to be doing in everyone else’s too.

So instead of going on about the topic we are already saturated by, I’m going to tell you some things I was grateful for this morning and be really Pollyanna nauseating.  

The sun shining, was a big plus, the fresh air and the time to walk our dog in lovely countryside were the first ones. The clear water in the stream reminded me how much I love to hear that sound so I recorded it to share with everyone.

 The wind was quite fierce and I discovered it had blown some of my poo bags out of the carrier bag. I went back to try and find them, but they had gone.  I was worried about the plastic (even though it’s biodegradable) blowing round the countryside. Further down the lane I met another regular dog walker who gave me one of her poo bags, then said she’d look for mine and pick them up if she saw them.  So that was another positive.

On settling down to work on the computer, I found that lots of my lovely friends and family had liked or shared my post about my new book ‘A Tree in Time’ with some really kind comments. I really, really appreciated that. Kindness from others matters a great deal. It made me feel so much better.

So that’s it- my way to get through the next few months. Feel gratitude and give as much kindness to others as I can. Whatever lesson Gaia is trying to give us from this experience, I pray that we all learn it as quickly as possible and it disappears as fast as it arose.  Happy weekend!

« Back to blog page