Under the Tree

From our Family Lab blog, on Dec. 2, 2012:

Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go.

Mother Teresa

FLIP-It Friday: Serious, Funny, Amazing, Beautiful

I wrote this FLIP-It Friday post for our Family Lab for Inquiry and Play blog, on November 26, 2012. Two years later, I still think Dumbledora the Explorer is a seriously funny idea.

We’re thankful for a thousand things this month, but even in the throes of gratitude, we’re flawed and complicated and often difficult to comprehend. Serious Bella, peacefully writing and drawing, turns into a screaming, roaring lion just minutes later.

Sam and I laugh about the idea of someone dressing as Dumbledora the Explorer for Halloween, but that buoyancy barely sustains us through homework arguments and the drama of sibling rivalry.

Which is why gratitude has to be an ongoing practice, not just a pithy soundbite during the Thanksgiving round robin, or even daily Facebook posts during November. I think that I’m a grateful person, but every day my gratitude is tested. Things fall apart, we get angry, we get sad, we storm out of rooms, forgetting the love that seemed all encompassing, just moments before.

How fortunate that the reverse is also true. We inch back together, offering our olive branches of silly jokes, paper clip magic tricks, the dishes done, an extra story, one last hug. The process is amazing and beautiful, and I’m grateful for that.

What has been your greatest source of gratitude this month? How do you get back to gratitude when life gets tough?