Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends! I hope you’re enjoying great dinners and wonderful family time this weekend!

Technically I should be posting my results (I do have them all recorded) but being as it’s Thanksgiving, I thought I’d share a little about my gratitude journey.

I’ve been learning a lot these days about saying Thank You and just how powerful those two words can be. It’s quite amazing, really.

There’s a reason for this, but it requires a story.

I’m not a big fan of MLM businesses. I’ve been burned too many times. I usually love their products, but hate the mindset and business practices that go with it.

Several months ago I met a member of my business networking group for coffee and she showed me a business called “Send Out Cards“. I politely told her I’d never get involved in another MLM, but thanks for the presentation. We went on with a very pleasant conversation, and I forgot all about it.

About a week later I got a very cool card in the mail with my business card on the front. Inside were pictures and a lovely note thanking me for our time together. She didn’t mention her business. She didn’t have to. I was blown away the by the power of a card with my business card on the front and such a personal message.

I called her up, signed up, and started using it in my business to great effect.

But seeing the power of it first hand, I wanted to understand how to more purposefully enter in to this mindset of gratitude – really, my most basic nature is very selfish indeed! I started researching and came across the book “365 Thank Yous: The Year a Simple Act of Daily Gratitude Changed My Life” that tells the true story of a man pretty down on his luck, feeling very sorry for himself, who decides to take on the challenge of writing one thank you note a day. After a year he saw that his life was changed.

I decided to take on the challenge myself. I’ve been posting the cards at Project365 to keep me accountable. (Note: several look the same – these are cards I sent to many of my friends who don’t live near me and with whom there has been only one-sided communication – them to me – to say thanks for their patience, and to update them. Sometimes there’s a section of blank spaces – it’s a bit finicky to get the pictures up so I block out time and do several at once. And, I’ll admit, I am also a couple of weeks behind – I’m catching up! ))

Some days I can write several. Some days I’m really scratching for ideas. However, it’s been interesting to see the changes in myself as I keep my antennae tuned for people I can say thank you to. Send Out Cards also helps me keep track of special days, so it means that every day I start the day by making someone else’s day.

It’s been a very cool shift for me. I’m loving the creativity I see being developed in myself as I create the cards, and I get very excited when I send one off because I’m believing it will make someone’s day.

You don’t need Send Out Card to do this – the author didn’t – just go buy a box of cards at the stationer’s and get a bunch of stamps and get on it.

I’d be interested to hear how you react to such a challenge, and how it changes you.

Darlene

PS – I’ll post my results on Wednesday!

Be A Star! Post your comments below and join in the conversation (or get it started!) and then share this post with your friends using the different share buttons on the blog. I’d sure appreciate it! Thanks!

Be A Star! Post your comments below and join in the conversation (or get it started!) and then share this post with your friends using the different share buttons on the blog. I'd sure appreciate it! Thanks!

Who is Darlene Hull? Click here: www.darlenehull.com to find out!

To call me a “driven” person is an understatement (friends might use the term “scary”…) There’s something about my makeup that doesn’t allow me to tackle a day without to-do list of at least 30 items. I kid you not. There are always 27 different projects to work on, and I take my relationship with my kids and husband very seriously, so time needs to be set aside for that, as well. This means I live each day highly focused, and heaven help you if you get in my way when we’re not in “relationship” mode!

And there’s something about today’s society that makes this kind of lifestyle something to be deeply proud of. I mean whenever someone asks you how life is, “busy” and “stressed” seem to be appropriate, praise-worthy responses. Weird.

In my Monday’s Post I shared about the trip my husband and I took to Montana and the incredible sense of rest that it afforded us. My own faith stresses highly the importance of Sabbath.

This is an idea that has been buzzing around in my head and my heart for a long time. I actually do start each morning very slowly with time for devotions, praise, walking, and the like before I hit the ground running, but the idea of a whole day of Sabbath every week? That’s tough. Weekends are so short and so fully of “busy-ness” that it’s hard to figure out how to make it happen.

I believe more and more, though that it’s a vitally important part of true wellness, regardless of your spiritual beliefs – or lack of such. It takes some work to make it happen (that sounds like a contradiction in terms…) but the results are well worth it. Here are some links that you might find helpful (if you’re not religious, these ideas can be used as a starting place and be adapted to suit your own needs):

• Here’s a great sermon about the Sabbath from one of the Pastor’s at my church. This will give you some great, balanced teaching about the Sabbath to get you started.
• What is Sabbath? This site will help you explore the idea of Sabbath and offers some good questions and suggestions for getting started. There is also a section on this site specifically for kids, and some specific activities you can try out together as a family.
• Here are some more ideas for things you can do as a family on the Sabbath
• Here is a whole book of ideas put out by the Seventh Day Adventists: 100 Creative Ideas for Sabbath

Of course, you could also try going for a walk as a family (couldn’t miss the opportunity of saying that, now could I?

• You could check out this site for ideas for younger children, and this site has games and activities for the whole family.
• If your family is as dependent on iPods for life and sustenance as our family is, you can download this 99 cent app that creates a sort of treasure hunt while walking.
• You can even download a FREE copy of my “Kids are No Excuse” e-report that shows you lots of different ways to involve your kids with walking

So those are some ideas that can help you get started. I honestly don’t believe it matters what day you chose – pick a day that works best for everyone, and then fight to keep it sacred.

I’d be really interested in hearing your ideas about Sabbath and to have you share in anything you might have tried that works for you. Post your comments below.

Happy resting!

Darlene

We have mice.

They’re desperately cute the first time you see them popping their little heads out of the stove burners (?!), but not after they’ve been caught eating your food and pooping all over your kitchen.  Perfectly disgusting creatures.  We’ve tried spring traps (they lick them clean of peanut butter without setting them off.  Cheese is just as bad), poison (they think it’s a nutritional supplement!), glue traps (they can get out of these! – though it’s pretty hard to extract the dog when he’s decided to play with a captured mouse!), sonic devices, essential oil of peppermint, and anything else we can find.

Ever seen “Mouse Hunt“?  Trust me, I’m about ready to hire the guy with the bazooka!

Anyway . . .

My family and I have been reading the book “The Hiding Place“.  In there, two sisters from Holland who run an underground for escaping Jews are arrested and eventually sent to Ravensbruck.  There they find deplorable conditions, but Betsy, the older sister, is anxious to discover how to serve God there, and they decide – based on their Bible reading that morning – that they will serve God by being thankful for everything.  Corrie, the younger sister – and much more like me – decides she can find ways to be thankful for many things, but NOT for the fleas which were rampant in their living quarters.

They discover that in spite of desperate conditions and the fact that they are watched every moment of the day, they are, for some strange reason, given a wide berth when they’re in the main room of their quarters, and discovered that the guards avoided them because of the fleas.  Now Corrie could truly give thanks for them.

I was thinking of this as I was deep cleaning the kitchen, trying once again to rid the place of mice and their filth.  I was angry – I not only hate mice, but I’m not too keen on cleaning.  To have to do it over and over because of THEIR mess does not make me a happy person.

However, I did decide to praise God for them, because I could see that they were forcing me to be a more diligent housekeeper – which is a good thing.

The exercise so inspired me that I cleaned the whole house vigorously for FIVE HOURS!  My house has never been this clean all at once!

So if you’re gonna visit – come now.  The house is sparkling, and I think my cleaning products have gassed the mice – I’ve not seen any today . . .

Darlene

Following up from my last post, let me share someone else’s blog today. This excerpted from “ A Holy Experience” and is based on the story in 1 Kings 17

Life gets dry. Recession looms, stresses mushroom, responsibilities overwhelm. It’s easy to grow a bit hard, crack open, weary for refreshment.

And I wonder if our daily lives are characterized by as much joy and gratitude as we presume? Are those emotions something we believe in, give mental assent to…but rarely feel.

I wonder if we don’t allow our well-being too often to be at the whim of mainly external factors. We rely, wait, on some outer emotional weather, our daily environment, to rain down some joy, shower us with happiness. Sadly, we let something of such paramount import as our daily joy to be unpredictable and fleeting, dependent on environmental happenings rather than a permanent, interior fixture of our being.

If we know gratitude bathes us in joy, why isn’t it a trait we nurture in our everydays, when there is no rain in the land? Why does joy seem more like an evasive mirage for most people, an oasis we rarely arrive at?

Researcher Rollin McCraty offers a supposition:

“We propose that a main factor is that people generally do not make efforts to actively infuse their daily experiences with greater emotional quality…. Although most people definitively claim that they love, care, appreciate, it might shock many to realize the large degree to which these feelings are merely assumed or acknowledged cognitively, far more than they are actually experienced in their feeling world. In the absence of conscious efforts to engage, build, and sustain positive perceptions and emotions, we all too automatically fall prey to feelings such as irritation, anxiety, worry, frustration, self-doubt and blame.”

Why do we live dry? We do not remember or choose to pour the oil. We don’t actively infuse our common moments with the oil of gladness. Our default mode is to go gather sticks and prepare for heart death.

Our habit of thinking is to live where there is no rain.

But there is always oil in the jar. The more we give thanks, the more joy fills our reservoirs. The more we pour out in praise, the more gladness overflows the jar of our souls.

I just need to remember to deliberately pour.

What else can I say?

Thank You, Jesus!

Darlene
(PS – feel free to voice your gratitude in the comment section below!)

Don’t forget to pick up your FREE COPY of the PraiseWalker Primer! And also, please check out my Christmas challenge here!

One of the main purposes of “PraiseWalking” is to bring your spirit, soul, and body together in a place of growing. One way to do this is to practice spiritual exercises while walking, and one of the easiest exercises to do is a “Gratitude Walk”.  If you think of the 4 definitions of a noun “Person, Place, Thing or Idea” and use them as your guide, you can spend your whole walk thinking of things you’re thankful for. First you think of all the people, but instead of just listing names, be specific. For example, I might pray: I’m thankful for my husband who is, to me, an incarnation of Christ; He loves me unconditionally and shows me through that, the heart of God.

I am thankful for my son who has a serving, compassionate heart and a dry wit that makes me laugh out loud.

I am thankful for my daughter, the muse, who always brings a deep question to a light conversation, and makes us think. Then you move on to places, and in those places, experiences. Then things you’re thankful for, and why. Finally, think of things like love, joy, beauty, sorrow, pain, and anything else that is a part of your life. You might want to write yours down and share them below.  Or put them on your own blog, and link to it here. I’d love to create a HUGE collection of these, and start a gratitude revolution.  Wanna join me?

Darlene

Don’t forget to pick up your FREE COPY of the PraiseWalker Primer! And also, please check out my Christmas challenge here!