Hello hello, and welcome to Episode 101 of Life On the Brink!
And to those in the States, Happy Thanksgiving! This is one of my favorite holidays, and I’m so excited to be celebrating with my family this year. It’s a beautiful time for traditions and food and beginning the Christmas season, but it’s also a wonderful time to reflect and actually participate in giving thanks. Whether or not you celebrate this holiday, we can all practice the act of thanksgiving, so today I hope to just share a bit of my recent ponderings regarding the relationship between gratitude and joy.
Plus! I have a VERY big announcement to share, and it’s something I’m very grateful for, so I’m going to spend quite a bit of time talking about it later.
What’s in my teacup? Ginger ale on ice (it's been my rock this month lol)
“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look
back and realize they were the big things.”
– Robert Brault
When life starts to move quickly, as it often does during the holiday season, it can be hard to remember to slow down and enjoy those “little things.” On the other hand, sometimes during a difficult season time moves so slow that we can feel stuck or trapped, which can also steal our joy. I’ve found myself in both of these scenarios from time to time throughout the past few months, which has only helped me see even clearer the importance of gratitude: actually carving out a moment to stop, say thank you, and enjoy the present moment.
Most of the time it is truly just a moment that can make all the difference; this isn’t a time-consuming practice. Of course, if I’m feeling a bit more burnt-out and need to be built up again, spending a slow morning or evening to relax my shoulders, maybe have a good cry, and pray, help me to refocus and come back to gratitude.
“In the research, we learned that the most effective
way to cultivate joy in our lives is to practice gratitude. The key word here is practice. It’s not just about
feeling grateful, it’s about developing an observable practice. So often we think that joy makes us
grateful, when in reality it’s gratitude that brings joy.”
-Brené Brown
Let’s all do an exercise together. Right where you are, stop and close your eyes. Take a few deep breaths and recall where you might have been on this day 3 years, 5 years, or 10 years ago. Think of something you were really hoping for at that time that is part of your life now. Take a moment to be grateful for this place right now. (If you can’t think of something, the quick shortcut for me is always to remember Covid times.)
Personally, I think about Thanksgiving 5 years ago. I hadn’t yet met Josh, but would meet him for the first time 5 days later. How my life has changed since then! This year I’m recording this from our new home. We both have jobs that we enjoy, and I get to see my family all the time. I’m living the dream, basically.
Now this exercise is not meant to belittle or disregard the very real challenges that we go through, but rather to simply shift the perspective. I love this kind of reflection, too, because it helps me see the difficult seasons as temporary (which is difficult to do when overwhelmed with them in the moment). Being grateful for where we are in the moment, the people around us, even the sun in the sky, makes all the difference. The fact is, the vast majority of us have all that we need.
So as we enjoy this day of delicious food and togetherness, and even into the excitement of December, I invite you to join me in spending moments of gratitude and spreading the joy that comes from it.
And speaking of joy, I have a very exciting new development to announce…
I’m having a baby!
Josh and I have been looking forward to having a family and we couldn’t be happier (not to mention my family, which is at crazy levels of over-the-moon excitement). As of this post, I am almost 12 weeks along, so almost out of my first trimester! I appreciate everyone’s patience over the past couple of months as I know my release schedule has been a little sparse. Like many women, I had a bit of a rough go of it for a couple of weeks and needed a little less on my plate.
*A NOTE: I gush a lot more about the baby stuff in the podcast audio, so feel free to listen or read the transcript here for more details!*
I’ll of course update as I’m going through this new chapter, as well as nursery renovations, over the next several months. It’s a totally new experience for me, and I’m trying to just take each step as it comes and let my body do what it’s supposed to do. As of this podcast, my due date is June 10th, so we’ve got lots of time to prepare.
Fortunately, I’m no longer experiencing the nausea that would have really rocked my Thanksgiving, and as this episode goes live I will be enjoying all manner of yummy foods. Really, I’m just so excited to finally be able to share this bit of good news with the world!
As you can tell, I’m very grateful this Thanksgiving, so I hope you experience moments of gratitude and joy today. Feel free to leave a comment on this post to let me know about them!
This Week’s Little Joy: In honor of today’s focus on gratitude, I’m going to simple share lots of little moments that have happened over the past few weeks that have brought me so much joy:
-Hosting afternoon tea for Josh’s grandparents.
-Fresh apple cider donuts.
-Going to Busch Gardens Christmastown with my siblings.
-The fall foliage in our new neighboorhood. It is absolutely stunning!
-Getting to see my baby move during the last ultrasound.
-Having a full-sized Christmas tree up in our home.
-Going out to breakfast with Josh on a Saturday morning (we were feeling pancakes).
-Rehearsing for Christmas shows.
What I’m Listening To: Spotify has a lovely playlist called “Christmas Market,” and it’s full of gorgeous choral arrangements of all the old Christmas carols I love. It feels very Dickens to me and is the only holiday vibe I want right now.
Thank you so much for listening! Feel free to leave a comment, or head to Apple Podcasts to leave a star rating or review. If you have any suggestions for future episodes, send an email in the contact form on this site. I’d love to hear from you, and I'll be back with a new episode every week leading up to Christmas!