Gratitude Personified-My Mom!
Posted by Dr. Judy at 12:00 am
When you receive this post, I will be in Delaware seeing my Mom, Louise, who will be 91 on Thursday, Sept.10th. She is slowly adjusting to her unexpected new existence in assisted living. Her broken ankle is slowly recovering. I hope she is tickled with her surprise party and the lovely, filled with photos and music DVD my lovely, virtual assistant and friend, Denise made for her.
Mom, always the quiet one, would look you straight in the eye and tell you what a wonderful life she has had. She’d say, “To think I grew as a a poor little farm girl, and I feel so grateful that I was able to travel the world!”
She usually traveled with my husband, Ken, and me. And I can tell you, thrifty was her middle name. She never needed to buy anything other than a little art object or a T-shirt. She was happy to savor the experience. Modesty and perspective were some of her top strengths.
And Mom is Gratitude personified. I thank God I got her Gratitude gene. And I hope you are like I am.
I pause and reflect just how very lucky I am to have a mom so wonderful and caring. I am grateful that she let me be free to use my creativity and explore life in the ways that were right for me.
So how can YOU be grateful today? Who can you thank? Ponder if you need to. If not your parent, how about a teacher, friend, colleague, neighbor, or even your pet?
What other personality strengths can you use to feel that you have had wonderful experiences?
Maybe curiosity, zest, love of learning.
Have you taken the Values in Action Survey at authentichappiness.org to get your list of strengths? What are you waiting for? It’s fun and it won’t cost you a cent. My Mom loved taking the VIA!
