Anyone who has been around Sojourn knows that I LOVE to give away favorite things. Totally inspired by Oprah. Of course, I don’t give away cars or vacations and not everyone gets something. It’s on a much smaller scale like a pumpkin candle or favorite book or Orange Ginger body lotion or cookies from a non-profit like Cookie Cart. It’s exciting and fun and usually the gifts have a meaning, a story, something a bit inspiring about them.

So when a friend shows up with a bag and tells you that she is giving you one of Oprah’s favorite things- you get kinda  super excited.

The bag had a big bow on it and Michelle, my friend, played it out in the best way. You know the whole build up. . . I have a gift for you. It reminds me of you. I just knew you had to have it.  THEN she uttered the words, “I won it when I won the  Oprah Sweepstakes and well there’s so many things and so I’ve been giving them away.” (She really did win that contest- you know the one where they mail you 102 things that are favorites of Oprah. It’s a big deal. She even got her picture in Oprah’s magazine.)

I fumbled with the ribbon/bow tied in a million knots and tried to lift the box out of the tight bag. Placing the box on my counter. . .there were the words. . .GRATITUDE. Perfect.

A gratitude jar.

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Next week in Sojourn we start a series on gratitude. I buy gratitude journals. I make gratitude journals. I’ve had mason jars with pieces of paper beside them for the family to write gratitude statements and I’ve been the only one who filled the jar. I’m not bitter. Much. I write lists of 1,000 things right from Ann Voskamp’s A Thousand Gifts.

Gratitude. It’s a huge deal for me.

This time of year I can get cranky. I love Christmas but we need THANKSGIVING before. We need to stop and be grateful and thankful and realize all we HAVE before we go all materialistic and life becomes about lists and Santa and such. I know. Everyone reading this in my family is covering their ears because this is my soap box.

Even though it’s the THING I tend to hang my hat on. . . I haven’t done it so well this past year and a half. The rug got pulled out from under me and I fell flat. And instead of looking around and naming all the things I was grateful for. . . I tended to name all the things I had lost. To grieve them deeply- which is a good thing. But to forget all the blessings that still are- not such a good thing. I’m giving myself some grace here realizing that at times it is a fight to see the good. And I fought like crazy to see it, to recognize it, to embrace it.

This fall afternoon I’m looking out my office window at the trees and the blue sky and the sun shining brightly. The leaves are moving gently in the breeze. And I’m thinking of all those I’m grateful for. I’m thinking about the jar and how I hope to fill it through the years  and invite others to help me. I’m thinking that no matter the circumstance there is always always something to be grateful for.

I’m also thinking about Jesus’ life and how he showed by his action the gratitude he had for the world, for the people, for the Father. The way he looked at people. The way he slowed down. The time he gave to really see and be with the women and men he encountered. Perhaps that is the key to being thankful. Slowing down. Seeing. Acknowledging. Being.

That’s my goal for the next month or so. To slow down and look and see. To breathe in all of life and the gift of every single moment. To be present.

What are you grateful for? What makes you stop and be present?