this morning, i visited chitowngreg’s sunday post about gratitude. it was fabulous to see all the comments there – 48 at the time i was visiting.
and then of course my research brain got curious. what a great treasure trove to delve a little into to find out what specific things people are grateful for! i spent a few hours to analyze it a bit and cam up with a few surprises and a few things that were expected.
family was the biggest theme. i found 25 mentions of it. most of them were about children, e.g.
three wonderful children with their own uniqueness
and almost as many about spouses, e.g.
climbing into my warm bed, with my husband who loves me, and listening to the rain softly falling all night long……
then a surprise – the next category in “family” was dogs, before mothers, etc.:
for dogs who never tire of seeing me.
chitowngreg’s blog is a 12-step blog, so understandably, there were a lot (21) of expressions of gratitude about recovery and 12-step programs, like
i watched, “crazy heart”, last night. a story about an alcoholic country singer/ songwriter. made me very grateful for my sobriety and the second chance i was given.
indirectly, some of the comments where gratitude is expressed for those kinds of things would also fall into other categories such as spirituality and friends (because of the strong fellowship aspect of 12 steps). i found surprisingly few (5) for friends (“the companionship of friends”) and 4 for spirituality (e.g. “playing ave maria in a little while at mass this morning”).
i was also not necessarily surprised but perhaps “pleasantly confirmed” that those gratitudes contained none of the cultishness that 12-steppers are sometimes accused of.
another topic that came up frequently was basic needs, possibly inspired by greg’s intro to the post about how lucky most of us are. if your combined household income is over $ $26,400 a year, you’re in the top 10% of all income earners in the world. think about that. for many of us westerners, that’s mind boggling. when i think of how many people i know who are wringing their hands because they only make $25 an hour, it’s refreshing to hear this
thank god for running water!
and then there were more comments (14) about the weather/nature than there were about health (11)! that was perhaps the biggest surprise. i would have expected for health to be right up there with family. of course this is anything but a scientific research project – still, i find this remarkable, something i’m thinking of following up (maybe i’ll write one of my brainblogger articles about this sometime soon). loved this comment:
i’m grateful to have had a glorious weekend on the boat and that this afternoon there was a wonderful thunderstorm. we came back through the rain but were safe. nature in all its power!
another surprise: of all the gratitudes i looked at (about 140 altogether), this was the only one that explicitly mentioned nature.
here’s one about health:
i’m grateful today that i can think and speak in words. a dear friend is wordless after a brain hemorrhage, and it’s very hard.
other things that were mentioned more than once, with some examples, and in order of occurrence:
blogging
i’m grateful to have blogs that allow me to reconfirm i am doing the right thing in my life.
gratitude itself
people like you who remind me why i should be grateful when i’m grouchy just because its monday
personal growth
having the courage to ask “what am i going to do,” rather than sitting in pity saying “why”
mornings (that was another surprise – mentioned 7 times)
the possibilities of the whole day in front of me
also home, work, baseball (!!!) and peace.