Being grateful for the little moments

Envision the things you're most grateful for. Your mind instantly hurdles toward certain steadfast gratitudes, right? For me, it's easy to be bowled over with appreciation for my family, wonderful friends, my job and the enormous amount of love and support in my life. I'm already enveloped by the knee-jerk warm fuzzies as we speak.

But what about the often forgot little moments?

These sneaking moments get swallowed up by our more grandiose appreciations. The little moments of gratitude are the first things we discard on days when we can barely find anything to be grateful for. To counter some of these lower days, I actually have an erratic habit of jotting down the little moments I am most grateful for. Reading them over serves as panacea, crusading against feelings of anger, discouragement or sadness.

The little moments I'm most grateful for

I remember the moment my heart sang with delight when I stumbled on a man playing the saxophone in The Gallery at Market East in Philly. Or after my feeble attempts to teach my nephew to say "dog," the moment my brother told me Jace pointed to the Target dog and rapid-fire proclaimed "Dah! Dah!" Or even the moment I received an unsuspecting compliment from a stranger on a particularly bad day.

When you think about what you're most grateful for this year, force your mind to acknowledge the little moments too. What little moments are you most grateful for?