Nothing and Everything by Angie Ledbetter

Coming up with gratitude items a couple of times a week isn't always easy...not that I don't have plenty for which to be thankful, but trying to think up a different thing each time takes a bit of work. There are the trite things I don't want to write about; those that everyone is grateful for, such as the freedom we enjoy in this country, our rights, the many material things we take for granted, healthy relationships, friends, etc. Then there are the life events that are hard to find a "silver lining" in.

So just for today, I'm going to breath in and enjoy every normal and everyday thing that comes my way. I'm going to take note of them, name them, and say a quick prayer of thanks because these items (good and plentiful food, family, a nice day, a working vehicle, my cell phone, shoes that feel good on my big feet, a reliable Internet connection, my 16-year-old Boston Terrier, my home) are "nothing" on the big scale of things, but everything in life.

Take stock of your everyday list of blessings, things that make you grateful, luxuries, rights, etc. and you will see a large expanse of goodness filling your life. Then when the inevitable poop hits the fan, it won't matter as much or seem like such a big deal. Yes, today is good and most days are good. I gather my daily small and large gifts around me like a warm angora blanket on the coldest of days. I hope you find such pleasure and happiness in the things that fill your life. In the end, they are everything!

Celebrating Self by Shellie R. Warren

Isn’t it weird (and a little sad) how you don’t really make the time to think about what you are thankful for or appreciative of until Thanksgiving rolls around or you meet someone like Angie Ledbetter who just flat out asks you?

A couple of days ago, she told me about this wonderful project she was doing with some writer friends, but I must admit, when she offered me the invitation to submit a rant, rave or two, it took me a second to even come up with something type-worthy.

Not that I am spoiled or anything, but to be honest with you, I have spent so much time focusing on “wanting more” that I haven’t really thought about “what I have” in quite some time. The irony of this blog platform is that without my initially realizing it, I’ve discovered that it’s actually an answer to one of my prayer requests and goals for the New Year: to celebrate myself, personally and professionally.

When it comes to writing, I am now celebrating my eighth year as a professional writer. Now, if you have this same claim to fame (being a writer for a living, I mean), then you know it’s not as glamorous as it sounds. Even today---literally today---I’m trying to figure out how to pay my Internet bill so I can send off my invoices to get paid for some of the articles I did months ago; ones that, had the money come in on time, hustling for cash wouldn’t be an issue at this second---literally this second.

But yet, when I think about the years of my life before 2000: years of being in school and not knowing what the heck to do; years of working in Corporate America and hating every minute of it; years of not knowing what my purpose in life was or what my personality and talents were meant to accomplish, these past eight years---house-sitting with cars about as old as I am and all---have been some of the greatest times of my life.

Writing is not paying the bills as much as I would like (yet), but I can say that I am a full-time freelancer, and because I spend a lot of my writing time putting, as my mother would say, “emotional throw-up” on paper, as a survivor of sexual abuse, assault, promiscuity, abortion and just plain ole’ confusion and depression, it has saved me a mint in therapy, and so yes, for that, I am mighty thankful.

But what it has also done is given me a voice in this world---maybe for this time, maybe not. It doesn’t really matter. When it’s right, I will be heard. How do I know? A best-selling author by the name of Alice Randall once told me that we write because we're destined to. It may not be for this generation. Someone may find something you scribbled on a napkin 50 years ago, but when they find it, that’s when it is supposed to be read, processed, heard.

I think that is what I am most thankful for. That of all of the gifts God has to give to his children, he entrusted me with the gift of writing. Even when I doubted, he believed that I had a voice that needed to be heard. Thanks to this blog, now and who knows, maybe even 50 years into my future.

Shellie R. Warren is a full-time writer in Nashville, TN. When she's not writing an assignment or pitching one, she's getting her non-profit, Butterfly Angel (http://www.butterangel.org/) off of the ground or working on her second and third books, "Make Him Weak in the Knees (in Prayer)" and "Dramaholics." Her memoir, "Inside of Me; Lessons of Lust, Love and Redemption" was released in 2004. For more information go to www.myspace.com/missnosipho.

Fear of Gratitude by Nannette Croce

Southern Italians believe in the mal’occhio or as phonetically pronounced in melded immigrant dialect “mal-oi-kia.” When someone gives you a compliment or comments on your good fortune, they purposely or inadvertently give you the mal’occhio, the “evil eye,” with the power to reverse your fortunes, unless the person follows with “God bless you.”

The small horn some Italians wear around the neck wards off the evil eye. Absent that you surreptitiously give the offending person “the horns,” a Texas Longhorns solute pointed outward.

Like knocking on wood or throwing salt over your shoulder, even if you don’t consciously believe a superstition, it plants its seed in your subconscious. On the upside the mal’occhio discourages bad behaviors like bragging and ostentation. On the downside, it makes public expressions of gratitude somewhat risky.

Announcing my good fortune to the world exposes me to the cosmic "evil eye." Safer to bluff like my grandmother did, “Huh, you think I have it so good? Well, let me tell you.”

It's been about five weeks now of counting my blessings to the public. So far no cosmic zap. Maybe it's not people who call attention to their good fortune the evil eye afflicts, but those who don't appreciate what they have or forget about those who have less or, worse, think it's a matter of just desserts.

Maybe, but just in case I think I’ll take that horn out of my jewelry box and start wearing it.