🎧 Listen to this wave

November arrives with Thanksgiving, gratitude lists, reminders to appreciate what we have, and conversations about counting our blessings.

I started wondering something.

How grateful am I, really?

Not according to what I say, what I write on paper, or how I want others to see me.

But according to what actually happens inside my head and my heart.

So I came up with a little experiment: three jars.

One for gratitude. One for complaints. And one for solutions.

I have a lot of complaints in my mind, but also a lot of gratitude in my heart.

Every time something crosses my mind or touches my heart, I’ll write it down and put it in the corresponding jar.

A moment I’m grateful for. A frustration I can’t seem to let go of. A problem I want to solve. An idea I actually put into action.

No editing. No judging. No trying to make the numbers look pretty.

Because I wonder what I’ll discover.

Will my gratitude jar be overflowing? Will my complaints jar reveal how much time I spend focusing on what isn’t working? And what about the solutions? Am I actually making changes, or am I simply getting better at finding temporary answers to the same problems?

It made me think about my own life.

I’m a mother. A daughter. A woman with dreams, plans, responsibilities, and an endless list of things I’d like to improve.

I do a lot for the people I love. Sometimes I do so much that I forget to ask what I’m doing for myself.

I want to be patient, but I get frustrated. I want to be flexible, but I need things to be in place. I want to give love without expectations, yet sometimes I find myself waiting for someone to notice, appreciate, or return what I give.

And when that doesn’t happen, I feel lonely.

Then I complain. Then I look for solutions. Then I try again.

Sometimes I wonder if I’m moving forward or simply going around in circles.

Maybe that’s what I need to discover.

Not whether I’m a grateful person or a complainer. Not whether I have more good days than bad ones.

But whether my thoughts, my actions, and the life I’m creating are actually aligned.

Perhaps gratitude isn’t about ignoring what bothers us. And perhaps recognizing our complaints isn’t a sign of ingratitude.

Maybe both deserve a place at the table.

The solutions jar might be the most interesting one of all. Because having an idea isn’t the same as taking action. And finding a temporary fix isn’t necessarily the same as changing a pattern.

I’m going to try this at home. Maybe we’ll all discover something about ourselves and about the dynamics we create together.

I’m not looking for perfect numbers. I’m looking for honest answers.

And perhaps, at the end of November, the most valuable thing won’t be which jar is fullest.

It will be what I finally see.

Maybe Wave 71 is about discovering that gratitude isn’t measured by how many blessings we can name, but also by how honestly we look at the life we’re living.

What would your three jars reveal about you?
Would you be surprised by what you find?

— TodayWaves

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