Gratitude

I guess it's just the idea of a fresh start and new beginnings that make each new year so exciting for me. I feel like I have another chance to make changes or continue to work on things that need to change. I realize more and more, with each passing day, how important gratitude is. Here are two quotes that help sum up it's value:
"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow." -- Melody Beattie

"Yes, there is a 'secret to happiness' - and it is gratitude. All happy people are grateful, and ungrateful people cannot be happy. We tend to think that it is being unhappy that leads people to complain, but it is truer to say that it is complaining that leads to people becoming unhappy." -- Dennis Prager

One of my dear friends Alison has decided to "unlock the fullness of life" through photos this year. If you want to go with her on her visual journey of the blessings in her life, check out her blog: http://web.me.com/creativemama/The_Bishop_Bee/The_365_Project/The_365_Project.html
I think it will be inspiring for me even though taking pictures is not my gift.

As I get my "fresh start" this year (the newly fallen snow outside is a great visual for me), I hope to constantly live in a spirit of gratitude for all the blessings that God has given me and my family.

Two more quotes to take us into the new year (I just can't help it - I love well-worded wisdom!):

"'You come of the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve,' said Aslan, 'and that is both honor enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor in earth. Be content.'" -- C.S. Lewis

"...Who am I, O Sovereign Lord, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?" -- 2 Samuel 7:18.

Happy New Year!