At the start of 2023, I wrote about my intention to keep a journal that would include a daily (or almost daily) note of gratitude. I promised myself I wouldn’t overthink it. Whatever came to mind with my morning coffee would go down in the journal.
We’ve reached the half-way mark for this year — and for good or bad this is the time to check on myself, I mean my journal, and see how it’s going.
Speaking of coffee, it shows up several times in my journal. That jolt with the morning write will not be ignored.
Other notes of gratitude included: my kitchen, smart people, robins flooding our patio, four friends around a table, a clean desk, birthday sushi, birthday flowers, avocado toast, free concert tickets from a friend and phone talks with my aunt.
One morning I was grateful for the redheaded woodpecker that feeds in our backyard. Several times I gave thanks for “a good night’s sleep.” A couple of times I could not deny being thankful for my Toyota Highlander.
John, my husband, and our children, Renee and Chris, show up in my journal several times.
I’m grateful for Hoptown Chronicle, our readers, my colleague Julia and story tips.
I started a photo project called “Hoptown at Night” for my Instagram feed, and I’ve been grateful for the pursuit of those images.
In early May we lost our golden retriever, and I wrote that I was grateful for 13 years with Summer, the best dog ever.
Often I’m grateful for practical stuff: a perfect haircut, UPS deliveries and the help of a good banker when my debit card was compromised.
Then June arrived and I was stumped one morning, so I wrote, “Today, I’m not sure.”
Recently I’ve made note of good books, the novel “Horse” by Geraldine Brooks and the short novel “Foster” by Claire Keegan. I found the first one on my own. I’m thankful my friend Martha White loaned the second one to me.
One morning this spring, I noted that I was grateful for “vivid dreams.” And then I wrote about the previous night’s dream — of being a kid again and having a friend who looked just like my 8-year-old granddaughter Emmy. We rode to school together — Morningside Elementary — in the backseat of a huge station wagon. Then someone decided we should start walking on our own to school. My cool friend and I headed out one morning and took a detour to the Minit Mart on Canton Street for Coke Icees and comic books. Surely it was 1970.
If I hadn’t written it down in my journal, I’m not sure how long I would have recalled that crazy, wonderful dream. And that’s motivation enough to keep going.
Here’s hoping for more surprises and reasons to be grateful for both dreams and everyday life in the second half of 2023.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
