Live Grateful

It's First Friday this week. The Town of Leonardtown's First Friday theme is "A Grateful Harvest -- Share the Bounty" The merchants are collecting non-perishable food items for local food banks in the area. The event will kick off First Friday, but we'll accept donations all month. When you donate, you'll receive a ticket for chance to win a gift basket put together by generous Leonardtown Business Association members. And yes, there's yarn in there - in fact, we've donated a kit for our First Friday project, the Box Stitch Cowl!

The Grateful Harvest theme got me thinking about gratefulness and the bounty of our lives. At the grocery store newsstand I saw that Oprah's theme this month is "The power of gratitude" She says that the first thing in her mind each morning is "Thank you" because she believes that "If you focus on what you have, you will begin to see that you have more. And if you focus on what you don't have, you will always live in a space of lack." I think that's very true.

Our knitting always presents us with opportunities to be grateful. Just having the ability to knit is a gift - to do something so constructive and relaxing - to be creative and engaged. Every time you pick up your knitting, take a breath and thank your mother/grandmother/sister/friend who taught you to knit. Silently thank the sheep who grew beautiful fleece, the people who spun it into yarn, and the artisans who dyed it for you.

Even when things go badly, there's an opportunity to be grateful. As we all know, no matter how rotten things are, they most certainly have been worse! Mistakes in knitting are teachable moments. Reworking six inches is more knitting fun from the same yarn investment - be grateful that you have the ability to fix your mistake - or access to someone else who does. Maybe it sounds a little Pollyanna-ish, maybe it sounds like "spin", but really, it's just about perspective. Focusing on the positive allows you to be grateful, and grateful people are happier people. Try it this month and see if you don't feel happier.