Loving Thankfulness

Happy November, a month set aside for gratitude and thankfulness.

I changed up our marquee to remind us to make gratitude a verb.

First, I'm grateful for the seasons, especially the colors of Autumn;

here's an idea to help keep preserve those leaves for a bit longer.

Just cut them up and put them in water with some glycerin.

I adapted my mindfulness bottle from this post;

for an added benefit, I added a tea-tree essential oil.

My friend Tanya made one in a clear bottle

and the colors pop better than in a ribbed bottle.

Second, I am so grateful to the CharacterStrong team for

inviting me to do this podcast episode on the importance of names.

What fun to talk with John Norlin about leadership rule number 1.

Third, I'm super thankful for the opportunity to write this post for

Dr. Christopher Culver, a Twitter PLN colleague, at the Kind Voice.

Fourth, I appreciate that I was in my home church when the

Pastor suggested we think about this love verse differently.

So I found this beautiful image from Marsha at Blessinks

and created this slide for an upcoming parenting session.

Think about this from your dating days,

then from your engagement, 

then from your walk down the aisle.

Consider it relation to your relationship as a couple.

Then as parents or caregivers and

then in the voice and viewpoint of your child.

How about as a teacher. Or a school counselor.

A leadership team. A custodian. An assistant.

A business man. An elected official.

Aunts. Uncles. Neighbors. Friends.

Then as grandparents.

It's convicting, isn't it?

A few more resources I've found useful this week:

Elmo discusses grief on Sesame Street

Quilting The Personal Narrative

Kindness Is Always In Season

52 Gratitude Songs For Kids

Health Benefits of Gratitude

I'm grateful for you, dear reader; please reach out 

if ever I can encourage or support you or your work.