Gratitude

I hate to be cynical about Mother’s Day BUT does it seem like just another commercial holiday that encouraged people to buy flowers and take their moms out to eat?  Sure it’s good for the economy but are we really expressing our gratitude for our mothers - who deserve every last drop - or acting out of Hallmark inspired guilt?  

My mother lives 600 miles away so an overcrowded, under-nutritious brunch is out of the question (I sent her a certificate for a massage instead).  But my mother-in-law lives nearby and after some bad brunch experiences we have learned to go out to dinner the night before or invite her to our house.  My favorite Mother’s Day was when my daughter and I participated in a charitable 5K in Buffalo (I ran, she volunteered at the water stop).
 
In Napa, California (did you know it was a town, not just a valley?) there is a lovely pre-Mother’s Day Tea at the Historical Society, which just happens to be the former Goodman Library.  George Goodman was one of those banking, mining, railroad magnates who blessed his town with a beautiful library in 1902.  Even though Napa has a new modern library a few blocks away, the Historical Society still holds the library’s historical records collection which makes it the oldest continual library in California.  The Richardson Romanesque architecture survived the 1906 earthquake, which demolished several Napa landmarks, and it continued to serve the residents of Napa as a library for sixty years.

The Napa Valley Register’s video clip of the Tea offers a peak at some of the moms and daughters sipping their tea, nibbling scones and enjoying each others company.  If we can get past the carving table and the tulips, Mother’s Day is a perfect time for moms and kids of every age to practice gratitude.
Take some time this week to appreciate your mother or anyone in you family, whatever form it takes; mom, dad, siblings, cats, goldfish, hermit crab, pet rock - you can be grateful for any and all of them.  
Being grateful will help you feel more positive about what you have.  But, like going to the gym, it only works if you keep doing it.  

Here are a few ways to keep the grateful feelings flowing.

• Tune in to the world around you everyday.  Notice things and appreciate their beauty, pleasure or comfort.  It can be as simple as relishing the first sip of hot coffee, hearing the birds singing or breathing in the freshly cut grass smell (if you don’t have allergies).
• Write down things you are thankful for in a gratitude journal every day.  Oprah is big on this practice and for a good reason.  If you actively take time to be more grateful each day you will feel happier, become healthier and have more to be thankful about!
• Write or tell someone how grateful you are.  I mean really tell them, not just with an e-card but from your heart.  Get specific and gushy, you can even cry if you have to.  It’s not too late to write to Mom, I promise she won’t mind that her official holiday has gone by.  Connecting with someone on this level will strengthen your relationship and bring you closer together.

I must confess that I have overwhelming feelings of gratitude when I open the door to the library and glance around at all the books.  
I am grateful for the chance to escape the craziness of daily life and breathe.  
I am grateful for the chance to read the thoughts of so many gifted authors.
I am grateful for the chance to keep learning and growing as a person.
And, if I was at the Goodman Library, I would be grateful for the scones, the tea and my mother.