What I put in my Grateful box this year

In an effort to raise my low spirits one day a while back, I borrowed an idea from a friend of mine and made a gratitude box. Late on Thanksgiving day, I read the following on the slips of paper I put in the gratitude box:

• Books
• That my cousins can join us for the fishing trip on Labor Day
• Prayer
• Running into old friends
• That each day is a new beginning
• Good food with good friends
• Brothers
• Memories attached to songs
• For cell phones
• The ability to learn from and through others
• The temple
• Patience and love from others
• Memories and voice mails with the Halloween Ghost
• For a loving Bishop
• To have the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life
• Running for the train and making it :)
• Modern day prophets (Elder Holland CES)
• Open mindedness 
• The complexities of life
• That my parents taught me good money management skills
•  Jen Martin
• Finding things you thought were lost
• TIME
• Tears. Not that I love crying so much as I love feeling and caring
• Medication
• The ability to pay off loans
• Roommates that are friends
• Emotions
• For Airplanes
• Changes in seasons
• Running water
• Choices
• Sleep
• A body that functions and provides an opportunity to learn how temporal and spiritual are connected
• David Zobell
• Thoughtful roommates
• Headphones
• Train rides
• Awesome adventures with great friends - like hot air ballooning with Mallori
• The ability to reason
• To have a good friend in Jen Martin

There are many, many more things I am grateful for, including this time of year that reminds me to focus on all the good in my life and the world around me. There is plenty of good and bad every day - we can choose what to focus on.

Pres. Thomas S. Monson captures this sentiment so well: "I have found that, rather than dwelling on the negative, if we will take a step back and consider the blessings in our lives, including seemingly small, sometimes overlooked blessings, we can find greater happiness...I would recommend this same exercise to you---namely, that you take an inventory of your life and look specifically for the blessings, large and small, you have received." (in Consider the Blessings)