Friday, December 4, 2020
Jen Stevens
Gratitude
I’m a big fan of Jimmy Fallon and the Tonight Show. His smile, silliness, talent and creative spirit are so captivating to me and he always makes me laugh. A lot! And don’t we all need to laugh during this crazy time? I absolutely loved how he continued to film his show from his home with his wife as his producer and his two young daughters as his assistants and graphic designers, coloring pictures of the Tonight Show logo that he would display. His girls would inevitably crash his monologue or zoom interviews with famous guests. He allowed himself to be so vulnerable and showed such a personal side of himself and his family, which was so heart warming.
One of my favorite segments he’s known for is writing his thank you notes. There is dramatic background music and the notes are typically silly and full of sarcasm, and always make me laugh! He writes thank you notes to daylight savings time, because don’t we all love waking up in complete darkness, beef jerky because doesn’t dried beef from a gas station sound so appetizing and to Amazon reviews, curly fries and Friday the 13th, to name just a few others.
I also love books, and boy have I read a lot in the last 9 months. I have many favorites, and one that’s on the top of my list is a simple book called Thx, Thx, Thx, Thank Goodness for Everything by Leah Dieterich. It’s a compilation of thank you notes, slightly less silly than Jimmy Fallon’s segments, but still whimsical and joyful. Leah writes that she found herself living in the future, always looking towards what is coming up and what might or might not happen in her life, and this was causing her a lot of stress. She noticed the times she felt calmer were when she was paying more attention to the present, that which was around her at the moment and to be grateful for that. She thanks hope for being alive, air for smelling like freshly baked cookies, clean sheets, berets, sidewalk cracks, sore muscles, expectations, the pile of books on her bedside table and many more.
As I reflect on this strange time we find ourselves living in, trying to remain in the present and making a list of what I am grateful for, like Leah, has helped me to shift my attitude when I have been feeling blue and fatigued with social distancing and missing so much about my pre-covid life. Here are a few things I am grateful for today: our new puppy, Olive, early morning fires in the fireplace, the sound of my Nespresso machine in the morning, walks on the beach at sunset, watching the birds feast at our birdfeeders, Olive being the reason we have discovered new walking trails in the Seacoast, discovering new authors, memories of travel, cooking new recipes, having a loving life partner and two amazing kids that are navigating their way through this time. I find myself needing to repeat this exercise from time to time to continue to remind me of all that I have in this one precious life. Many of the things on my grateful list repeat, such as my family, but there are certainly more whimsical things that pop up from time to time…dark chocolate, silly seagulls that Olive chases on the beach, shows that make me laugh like Ted Lasso and Schitts Creek, Christmas lights, Café Kilim baristas. What’s on your list?