We did it!! In these three weeks, we've made gratitude a habit and today, I am most grateful that you have been here doing this with me. Thank you for being a part of it and for making gratitude a bigger part of your life. Thank you for your private messages about the ways this is helping you though challenging times, for signing up for emails, and for passing this on to others so they can benefit, too. It has been much more fun to share this daily experience with you. 

It's been twenty-one days of work and mindfulness. Let us know in the comments below how this daily practice has affected you so we can celebrate your victories. I hope you have seen some of the benefits that research tells us are common: I hope you’re sleeping better, feeling more optimistic and energetic, managing stress better and getting sick less often. I hope this makes you more joyful. 

I have certainly seen positive changes in my life: I feel less frustrated, more resilient, more joyful, more patient, and I have set better mental boundaries with others, recognizing their actions and words are theirs and mine are mine. I take on less of other people's negativity and I've grown even closer to God and to my husband.  I like living this way. A lot. So, on my own, I'll spend the next year pausing every day to appreciate what I have. It’s my long-term experiment and I’m interested to see where it will take me and how it will change me. Maybe you will continue this, too. I hope so. Please keep me posted. Let’s encourage one another. It's what we're supposed to do while we're here, together on this big blue ball. 

Many, many thanks, Underdogs!  Peace, love and more gratitude than ever!

It's day 21, the last day of The Big Joy of Little Things and my blessings include:

74. YOU!! Thank you for sharing this journey and for giving this a try. 

75. Walking out into what was just a plot of seemingly lifeless dirt a few months ago and, with the summer sun on my back, hand picking a large haul of cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers. Every time I step into my vegetable garden, it reminds me to be patient and believe because, with  some work and TLC, something can come from nothing.

76. The pleasure of biting into a juicy, ice cold piece of watermelon on a scorching summer day with a heat index of one-hundred degrees. Ahhhh.....

77. The way gratitude has changed our lives these past three weeks. And the anticipation of the ways it will continue to shape us. Yes, I am grateful for gratitude!