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The Gratitude Project


I have had this blog for a few years now, and I have never actually written a blog post for it.  I have written other blog posts for work and for past forays into politics, but never here.  I originally named this blog Michael’s Deep Thoughts because I thought that it would be a place where I could share bits and pieces of my grand wisdom and help people to see the world a little bit differently, perhaps even more like I see it.  Wouldn’t that have been a great blog?  People would have read that for sure.  However, like many other projects it never got off of my notepad and was quickly replaced with five other equally genius ideas.  So until now the blog has been empty…until today.
Last night I crawled into bed to give one of those prayers where you get the best of both worlds.  You can still kneel down, kind of, but you can also enjoy the comfort of the pillow and immediately start to enter the sleep cycle without losing any time.  On this night I was caught by a thought that unfortunately not only kept me awake long enough to pray, but would not let me sleep for some time after.  I was thinking about what a blessed person I am.  How I have been so well taken care of in so many ways.  I am not a rich man and we have our own financial challenges, but we live quite comfortably.  I have a beautiful, good woman for a wife who is honest, descent and determined to be a good mother.  I have the cutest little boy for a son who is growing and learning and healthy.  My larger family is filed with people trying to live good lives and support one another.  I live in a great place in a great country at a wonderful time.  These are all fairly common thoughts, although I am sure they could use more attention than they get.  I am sure that I should give them some of the time that I spend thinking about what I would wish for if I encountered a genie (ask me some time, I have this ting down to a science).  Regardless, they are fairly common thoughts of gratitude, not extraordinary and certainly not the type that keep me up often.
 This night was different because I caught ahold of a thought about some of the people, outside of my family, which had shaped and molded my life in significant and meaningful ways.  I thought of some of the people that put me on the path to the blessings that I enjoy today.  I realized that some of them may be interested to know what good they have done in my life.  What if I could lay out for them the path that I followed after intersecting with their life?  What if they could see how their small acts and advice and love and rebukes and time multiplied into a life that is blessed in many, many ways?
I thought about writing letters to some of these people, particularly some of the ones that have no idea of what ever happened to me.  That would be nice, right?  Getting a letter about a kid you knew 20 years ago explaining how you changed his life would mean something, right?  I decided that I should pick five of these people and write to them.  Then I decided, what if I wrote one of them each week for a year.  Certainly there must be 51 at least.  This exercise would be great for me.  It would help me to appreciate what others had done for me and what I could do for others in return. 
I thought wait, this enlightenment about what good they had done may be valuable to more than just those that did the good.  What if others could see how a small act could change a life, would we see more small acts of kindness?  I should get a column in a newspaper and share these stories as a way to uplift and motive people.  Maybe I could have other people write in and share some of their own stories, I could weed through the bad ones and make comments on the good ones.  Like Dear Abby or my favorite, Dan in Real Life.  Heck, this would be a good side income… By the way my wife could tell you that just about everything ends in, “that could be a good side income.”
The plan was laid out, I was going to write some of these stories, approach some local papers about what a great column this could be and then I would be rolling.  At the very least I would honor those that have blessed my life, maybe inspire others to do the same and possibly even make a buck doing it.  Then I remembered how many of these projects I think are great when I put them into my notebook of great ideas, but then never materialize because they are forgotten when the next great idea takes its place.  I realized that if I were really going to appreciate these folks the way I wanted to it had to be something small that I could handle, not a grand plan.  I don’t have time to write a column, although I think it could be great.  I won’t write once a week about a different person that changed me, although I easily have the material.
I decided that I just need to start writing some of these thoughts down for me.  I needed to record them so that I remember what good had been done for me.  I decided that I could use this old abandoned blog as a pace for it.  I don’t have to share it with the world, I don’t have to even tell people that I have a blog.  Maybe I will, maybe I won’t, but at least I will have a place to remember the people that changed me.
So, I am going to write about a few of these experiences and if you are reading this you are free to read them as well.  As soon as I get to writing them down.  If you stumble upon this and you see that no other posts have been written just remember, I never promised that I would finish this project and starting may in and of itself be a challenge.  Also, I may have met a genie, in which case I no longer have time for this blog because I have a lot of work to do…
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