gratitude

I've been thinking about it.  It's easy to be negative when times are hard.  We've had some difficult things to face in the past few months, but even before that I had noticed a need for more gratitude in my life.  I tend to approach life with a positive attitude (most of the time, certainly NOT all of the time), but this issue of gratitude is something a little different. Instead of thinking that everything will turn out alright, I really need to be grateful for and excited about the things in life that deserve it. I've heard of gratitude journals, but that always seemed very Oprah to me, not something I was going to do, but I've found myself in my regular journal listing things about life that I'm grateful for because I've been needing to.  When I look over the last season of my life, I have to admit that I need it.  Gratitude.  There are so many things in my life that are so wonderful and I get so caught up in the day to day things that disappoint. and you know, I really don't want to.  I want to learn to be uplifting, not in the cheesy sense, in the real sense that I am realizing that everything works out to something beautiful, even if it doesn't start that way. because I think it does.  I feel like the culmination of my life will be something beautiful and I don't want to get lost in the every day negativities, but rather be so grateful and content with what I have and hopeful for who I'm becoming.  In spite of the mess that it all seems to be at one time or another, life is beautiful.