Week 26: I'm not wedded to my iPod like so many people I see these days, but I'm still never far from the sound of music. Whether it's a live performance of the municipal band in the park or the soft refrains of some smooth jazz coming from my XM radio, music plays in important role in my life. That's why I've made it my blessing this week.

Music is probably a part of your life, too...you don't have to play an instrument to be grateful for music. Doesn't the lullaby your mother sang to you or the one you crooned to a fussy infant hold a special place in your heart? What do you feel when the melody you and your special someone dubbed "our song" begins to play? And don't the theme songs from some of your favorite old TV shows bring back fond memories of family time together? Music is clearly intertwined with memory, and it's amazing how just a few notes will transport us to another time and place. I'm grateful for this magical power of music.

While I still have last week's layout to do (along with much catching up here on the Gratitude Project website), this week's page is in the gallery and there's more about the blessing of music on my blog. Fortunately, there's no sound so you can't hear my singing along to my favorite songs.



Week 25: My high school class is celebrating the 45th anniversary of our graduation with a reunion this week. It's hard to believe that many years have passed since we wore those caps and gowns. While I'm not sure I could have predicted it when we were in school, the classmates have become increasingly closer as the years have slipped by. We are genuinely glad to see one another at these five-year get-togethers, and I'm grateful for the opportunities to remember our high school days and renew our friendships.

I've chosen the chance to reconnect with friends as my blessing for this week, and my prompt to you is to look at your life to see what faces from your past have reappeared and brought you happiness. Has Facebook or one of the other social networking sites helped you find friends or family you'd lost touch with? Have you Googled a former best friend who feel off your radar and rekindled your relationship> Or perhaps there is someone you use to be close to but your lives took different paths and you wish you could reconnect. Let this prompt kick-start your attempts to track them down. There are some relationships in life too precious to let slip through our fingers. Celebrate the effort to reconnect with those people who shared a special time in our lives.

There will be catching up to do...my layout is delayed while I enjoy the reunion and associated travel. But you can find more about reconnecting with old friends and viewing past relationships in a new light on my blog.



Week 24: It's not hard to say what has made my heart happy this week...air conditioning! A day and night without one when the thermometer reading tops 90 will make one grateful for cool air, and that's just the title I chose for my layout celebrating this convenience turned necessity as my blessing. You'll find that layout in the gallery.

The experienced prompted me to think about the modern conveniences we take for granted until we're without them...conveniences that once were luxuries but have become necessities. What equipment in your house makes your life better or easier to the point your routine changes when it doesn't work? Is it the microwave that saves time and mess over cooking on the stove? Or is it the Roomba vacuum that's sweeping your carpets while you're doing other chores, making you twice as efficient? Perhaps it's the whirlpool tub where you can go beyond getting clean to getting relaxed under its powerful jets. These things aren't essential to our life but have become an integral part of our lifestyle. My prompt to you this week is to look around you and see if some of these things are important enough in your life to be considered blessings.

I'm in the process of adding my weekly blog posts into my blessing album so everything related to this project will be in one place. This week's post includes a little tutorial on formatting your journaling in booklet form. It's an easy way to fit a large amount of text into a small space. Come by the blog and check it out.



Week 23: I'm enjoying a renewed energy and sense of purpose as a result of some new goals I've recently set for myself. Goals used to be a regular part of the educational and career sides of my life, but they just didn't seem necessary in the retirement phase we're currently enjoying. Not that we don't have things we want to do and accomplish...they just didn't seem like goals. But I'm looking at things with new eyes after focusing on some new finish lines and that's the blessing I've chosen for this week.

Are you a goal-setter? If so, have you thought about how your current goals fit into the blessings in your life? Are you working toward a degree or professional certification to advance your career? Or are you enrolled in a leisure learning class, hoping to master calligraphy, a foreign language or some other skill you find interesting? Perhaps you have your sights set on weight loss or exercise goals for a better body and better health. Whatever your goals might be, the prompt this week is to examine them through the lens of gratitude to see if they deserve a place in your project. And if you can't identify any goals, maybe it's time to set some.

As always, my page is in the gallery. It's done on a transparency this week so there are actually two images, the front and the back. You'll also find more on the concept of goals and gratitude and some tips about my layout on my blog.