Courtesy of Curly Girl Designs

Have you ever thought about why a season of joy follows a season of gratitude? There are the obvious reasons of course. Thanksgiving was started by proclamation of Abraham Lincoln in 1863 as a national day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens". It was obviously at the end of the harvest. Christmas is there because it aligns quite nicely with the winter solstice. So perhaps there are wonderful reasons to have these holidays placed on the 4th Thursday of the month and on the 25th of December but really I think the reason is even greater.

Throughout the month of November I tried to focus daily on being grateful. I like to think that I practiced gratitude because being grateful is not a one time thing and it is not an easy thing to do. There are so many things to complain about but what I have found is its more effective to be grateful and thankful than it is to try not to complain. When I focus on not complaining I focus on the negative. When I focus on be grateful I am focusing on the positive.

The strange thing about practicing gratitude is that you don't even realize the effect it has until you are in the thick of it. Thinks are going awful. The day is terrible and the next thing you know you're thinking of the good things about the day.

But back to joy. Joy is something many folks look for during the holidays, including my family. I imagine its why we wait in line for 2 hours to meet Santa or set up rides on "Santa trains". We are searching for joy all the time from outside places but the fact is if you practice gratitude the joy will find you. If you are thankful for the little things, enjoying the moments its amazing how joy sneaks up on.