I sat down this past week a did a little bit of reflecting. What is important to me and how can I make time to do it all? My blog is important to me and, yet, I don't seem to carve out time each week to work on it. That leads to an inconsistent blogging schedule and the feeling of being overwhelmed when I finally do sit down to work on it. More on that reflection in another post.

This all has a point, I promise. As I sat down this morning to reflect on these things, and as I thought about my blog, I came to a stunning realization: Even though my blog is called Growth & Gratitude, I often leave that second one out. Despite the fact that I sit down every night and write three things I am grateful for, I never share those things on my blog.

So now, each week, I'll be sharing a list of things I am grateful for as well as some things that have made my week just a smidge brighter, whether that is a picture, a blog post, or a product that has been particularly useful.

See? I told you it all had a point.

I find that the people around me have a hard time naming what they are grateful for. They feel as though there are limits, like saying you are grateful for nature is too vague or that you can't repeat a gratitude too often. That's bullshit. Or billshut, as my fingers wanted to type initially. Let's make that a thing, huh? Hopefully, if you are looking to add a little bit of gratitude into your life but feel like you don't know where to start, my lists will help inspire you to look at the world around you with new eyes.

Let's get started.

It doesn't really feel like fall yet, but it is starting to look like it. I am so grateful that, from my bedroom window, I can see the changing autumn leaves. It makes me feel so cozy every time I catch a glimpse of red, yellow, or orange outside.

I am super grateful for my local library, which has a fantastic selection of ebooks available for me to read through Kindle. It has definitely upped my reading game and introduced me to books that I wouldn't have read otherwise. Plus it pairs perfectly with those beautiful autumn leaves –– because what better to do in autumn than read, right?

This year, I have experienced so much personal growth that I am immensely thankful for. After graduating, my anxiety continued to get worse and worse. Working from home and not seeing friends on a regular basis like I had in college left me pretty much a hermit. I didn't keep in touch with friends and I certainly didn't go out and spend time with people. But this year I resolved to be more courageous and, although I still experience (sometimes crippling) anxiety, I have seen big changes in my personality and my ability to get out there and get shit done.

I am also grateful for this piece from Your Fat Friend on Medium. We live in a world where it is becoming increasingly more normal to see blatant harassment and abuse in public. It's up to us to speak out against such aggression and to speak up for ourselves if and when we can.

I really love this blog post from Cait Flanders about how she grew her blog her own way. With my previous blog, I definitely understood the push to do things a certain way in order to be successful –– even if success wasn't entirely my goal. This was a great reminder that you only need to be yourself in order to build a presence and a community organically.

What have you been grateful for recently? I'd love to read about it.