As some of you may know, I'm a member of Living Your Five™, an inspirational web project devoted to making a difference in the world along with awesome authors Kay Cassidy and Tera Lynn Childs.
Living Your Five™ is about making the world a better place, one person and one contribution at a time. It’s about understanding what’s most important to you and how you can make a Positive difference in the world around you in ways both large and small.
Our Fives are the five areas in which we personally want to make a difference in the world, and once a month we share the progress we’ve made on our blogs.
Yep, that's right, I said "once a month" even though I admit I may have fallen off that particular wagon as of late.
Though that's not to say I've fallen off the Five wagon, because I haven't. In fact, it's become so ingrained, it's just part of my lifestyle now.
Oh, and just so you know, these are my Five:
1. Commit to frequent acts of kindness and gratitude
2. Commit to random acts of charity
3. For new item purchased, donate something similar to a person, place, or organization that needs it
4. Commit to living greener and helping lessen and/or offset my environmental footprint
5. Commit to positivity, to keeping all communications a no snarking/no ranting zone, and happily post about what’s going right in the world
For the record, I thought #3 was going to be pretty tough going, but it's actually been pretty easy and it's forced me to become way more cognizant of the things that I buy.
But today I want to post about Gratitude (#1), so here goes:
Last year, in February 2009, I hit the New York Times Best Sellers list for the very first time, and to celebrate, my husband and I drank champagne.
The following week, I hit again, and so, more champagne. And since the list comes out on Wednesday (even though it's officially published on Sunday) we jokingly called it "Champagne Wednesday."
Between Evermore, Blue Moon, & Shadowland, I spent 55 weeks on the list. And when the Wednesday arrived that I didn't hit, we'd grown so used to celebrating my husband proposed we find something else to celebrate each week instead.
I loved the idea. Not just because it allows me to drink more champagne, but because it forces us to stay positive, to come up with one good thing no matter how trying the week might've been.
Whether it be a flower, a sunset, a particular view from our window--there is nothing too small that isn't worth celebrating, and this Wednesday we celebrated my husband being in deep remission for over four years (definitely a BIG thing!). As for next Wednesday, who knows? We'll see what life brings.
But what about YOU? What are you celebrating this week?
Oh, and if you'd like to learn how to become an Honorary Fiver, click HERE!
Have a great day, everyone!
Alyson
xoxo
