Category: Gratitude

What Good’s In You?

The Journal Writing prompt today is: Make a list of 20 things you like about yourself.

Believe it or not, this is going to be a difficult assignment. The thing is, according to my mood, I can tolerate myself or hate myself. The tendency toward antipathy is strong.

Here goes:

  1.  I am creative.
  2.  I love deeply and extravagantly.
  3.  The son I raised is an outstanding success.
  4.  I am a writer.
  5.  I am an artist (perhaps not a very good one, but I have some gifts).
  6.  I choose never to stop learning.
  7.  I want to be like Jesus.
  8.  I made my Mom’s final years bearable and kept her at home.
  9.  I do not allow Schizo-Affective Disorder to defeat me, though sometimes it is touch and go.
  10. I have excellent taste.
  11. Animals love me.
  12. Children love me. (Ah, geez, I am running out of things to say. Whatever else?)
  13. I am generous.
  14. I sing.
  15. I work with technology despite the fact I never got the hang of typing very well.
  16. I am an early-adopter.
  17. I am capable of teaching things I know.
  18. I have empathy.
  19. I have overcome most of my worst habits.
  20. I have a wide variety of friends.

Bonus: I am still here, even though I fight suicidal ideation more than I like.

Okay, I did it. Can you? Can you step out of the negatives that often besiege us, and count yourself a blessing? I suggest you do it. It might brighten your day. Appreciate yourself. 

The Bible says we should love others as ourselves. It implies the prerequisite that we love who we are to love others better.

© Jo Ann J. A. Jordan

Things Work Together

There was a time, many years ago, when I did not have a dog and was in a bad state because of my Schizo-Affective Disorder.

My weight had been a battle all my life, and at this juncture, I chose to begin walking daily. To my great surprise, when I came out the first time to walk, a lovely Weimaraner was waiting right outside the door. This angel dog accompanied me on my walks, probably over a year.

It was there every day, no matter what time I chose to go for my walk. Seeing this beautiful animal and basking in its love helped me continue in the exercise even though, typically, I’m not too fond of exercise.

Today, as I dive into another challenge, I remember I am supported in many ways when I attempt to improve.

© Jo Ann J. A. Jordan

The dog was real, it went home down another street every day, but it was faithful to walk with me. It chose to be my friend.

For Joy’s Sake

When things are dogging us, and things seem to go wrong, sometimes a Gratitude List can give clarity.

I highly recommend the practice.

I have a journal, specially designated for gratitude. Sometimes I make entries less often than I ought, but I return to it.

The Journal Writing group I have been in for almost two decades does Thankful Thursday.

If you give it a try, I expect you will find a greater sense of peace.

© Jo Ann J. A. Jordan.

Hope to Give

I want to take you
To all the places you have
Never guessed or known,
Show you all the magic of
The simplest “I don’t know,”
Teach you how to find yourself
In the universe of love
Which pure passion has imparted.
Take your hand and lead you
To places happiness never departed,
Encourage you to live again without
The sting of being continuously haunted.
Everyone deserves a current love without fail,
Forever is not a crazy imaginary fairytale –
It can be coaxed, drawn, made wholesale.

Implications Poetical

It is tough to be a poet –
Subject to blame, complaints,
And yet, hard it is not,
Because poets have everything:
Hate, love; form, free; evil, good;
Lovely, ugly; all the words from
Every age, language, in attendance –
Dancing in creativity blessed brains
Ready to make entrance and appear
Marching lines upon the pristine page.
Do not lament the dejected lot
Of one whose choice is to be a poet
For a more nuanced definition can not
Come to pass than such blessed
Omen as to claim the identity
Of a writer of poetry.

© Jo Ann J. A. Jordan

As a prompt, explore your creative outlet, do work that gives insight into its benefits and hazards. Share or not, as you like.

What can you do to incite your productivity? Consider doing this.

Gratitude List

I am thankful:

  1. Service at Ford fixed my Check Engine Light so it could pass emissions.
  2. I carried twenty bags of cans to the dumpster a ways away.
  3. I got the Explorer’s emissions done.
  4. I managed to finally navigate the tax site so tags are paid.
  5. I have been extremely productive in my creative output lately.