Feeling and expressing gratitude has been proven to make us happier. Martha Kendall tells us about her gratitude ritual.
For many years, I’ve recited a silent daily mantra of appreciation, thanking people I have loved but who have passed away, people to whom I owe a debt of gratitude.
I make a point of not doing this at the same time every day. I don’t want it to become a mindless, rote exercise. Instead, I recite my individual “thank you’s” whenever I remember to do it – maybe when I step outside and am greeted by chirping robins, or when I smell my world-famous banana bread baking, or glance at the photograph of my dignified grandfather with a twinkle in his eye.
No Amens are involved. This is not a prayer. It is my personal tribute to each of the people most dear to me who have passed away, and whose love sustains me. Their best selves live in my memory.