Book of Gratitude

The light streaming through Lori’s curtains felt as though it was coming from a spotlight. She sighed and rubbed her eyes as she sat up having no idea what time it was but knowing that she definitely had not gotten enough sleep. That was pretty typical for her; not only was she the world’s lightest sleeper but she felt like she had the worst luck out of anybody she knew. Her life had never gone the way she wanted or hoped. Her life consisted of survival and waiting for the other shoe to drop any time anything good did happen to come her way. She stretched and felt her foot collide with a mass at the end of her bed proceeded by a quite heavy sounding thunk and low grumbling.

“Oh Chonks! I’m so sorry! Mama didn’t mean to kick her fluff off the bed!” she cried as two large, disgruntled eyes peered over the mattress at her.

Her day was already off to a bad start. She picked the large ball of orange fluffy feline off the floor and cuddled him until he started purring with forgiveness. Chonks was her best friend and at most times, felt like her only friend. He had quickly become her reason for even bothering to get up out of bed anymore. Depression was a drag, as were the people that she had to encounter regularly working the cash register at the local liquor store in town. It wasn’t much, but it was a job at a time when there weren’t many.

“Alright Chonks, I have to get ready for work otherwise you don’t get your treaties!” she beamed down at his big eyes that seemed to beg for her to come back for more snuggles.

Her morning routine wasn’t very time consuming. Minimal effort was her favorite way to go, it’s not like she was trying to impress anybody, least of all her tyrant boss. She quickly threw her hair into a ponytail, put on her black-on-black work clothes, brushed her teeth, and quickly flew out the door. She hoped that she wouldn’t be late again but after her car broke down, she started to walk the hour to work. Sometimes she made it in the nick of time to clock in, other times she didn’t. Aside from her boss being annoyed, she didn’t really care one way or the other if she made it. Her dream was to write her passions and be talented enough where she didn’t need the dreary jobs where everybody is expendable, and nobody is appreciated. Her job was emotionally and mentally exhausting and she was so tired of listening to her customer voice telling people to “Have a nice day!” as they exited the store with copious amounts of alcohol without a second glance.

The chill of the Canadian autumn morning cut through her sweater sharply, so she stopped at the gas station along the way to grab a nice hot cup of coffee. In the line up was a middle-aged woman who seemed to bubble and glow with airy light and laughter. I can’t even Lori thought eyeing the woman up and down. How can somebody seriously be THAT happy? It’s not normal! The man behind the counter was giving her the same dubious look as he handed her the change, absently smiling at the woman’s sing song chattiness. As the woman turned to leave, she bumped into Lori spilling the cup of coffee she had been holding with a squeal.

“Oh Hon! I’m so sorry I didn’t see you there! Oh dear, let me buy you another coffee. My head’s just in the clouds today! There, there, let’s get you cleaned up” she said as she was passing Lori napkins to wipe herself down with and giving the man behind the counter money for a new coffee.

“It’s fine, really, you don’t need to… oh okay...” Lori tried to reassure the woman half heartedly.

This was just another typical day for Lori. Things spilled on her, she tripped over things, hurt herself constantly, dropped things. It wasn’t even worth getting upset over anymore because it was her normal. The woman apologized again with what seemed to be a sincere smile before heading back outside to her car. When Lori grabbed the coffee off of the counter and turned to walk away, she tripped over something and almost lost her coffee again. When she looked down to see what had caused her to almost lose coffee number two, she saw a little black book laying at her feet. It must have fallen when the women had bumped into each other. She picked it up and opened the first page to see if it was anything important or had any contact information in it. There wasn’t but what did catch her eye was the flowing writing down the page. It was titled “Daily Gratitude”. It listed what she assumed were things the woman had been grateful for.

1. I am so truly grateful for the abundance I have in my life: an abundance of love, money, and laughter!

2. I am so grateful for the food that I have in my house to feed my family!

3. I’m grateful for the leaves changing colour and making the world a little more beautiful!

And the list went on. Page after page of random things that this woman had been grateful for that seemed so silly. She thought back to how happy that woman had been. It seemed to radiate off her like she was staring at the sun in human form. She put it in her bag without really knowing why and continued on her way. All throughout her shift at work she kept thinking of the woman and her little black book of gratitude. She wondered if there was some strange connection between the book and the happiness that came off the strange woman.

Well, what the heck, it’s not like things can get any worse now can it? she thought after getting home and sitting down and flipping through the book once more. There were still some empty pages, so Lori grabbed a pen and sat with Chonks purring in her lap trying to think of any little thing that she was grateful for, Chonks being very prominent in her list, as was her writing. As the gratitude came out on the page, she started to feel something shift inside her. She was feeling happier than she had all day. She could feel her heart swell and lighten at the list of things that she already had to appreciate. She continued doing this every day over the next few months and then she would turn her attention to her story that she had been trying to write but hadn’t touched in far too long. Before she knew it, she had a completed story that she felt pretty good about.

The next morning, she started her routine for work, put her story and her little black book into her bag, and headed to the gas station for her caffeine fix. Why am I always in the writing zone at night? she yawned. After paying and turning to leave she walked right into somebody and dropped her bag and all of its contents onto the floor.

“I’m sorry! I wasn’t paying attention!” Lori started to say and when she looked up it was the same woman who had dropped the little black gratitude book months prior.

“We need to stop bumping into each other like this dear! Oh hey! I used to have a little book like that!” the woman happily exclaimed while helping Lori gather up her belongings. Lori sheepishly told her how she had found it and continued writing down her own gratitude.

“Hon, I think you were meant to find it! Writing my gratitudes has helped me out so much in life, and it seems like it found you because you needed it! That was a sign from the Universe straight to you!” she beamed. “What about this here?” she leaned down and picked up the story Lori had been writing.

Suddenly embarrassed Lori looked to the ground and said “Oh it’s just this stupid thing I was working on, but I don’t know. Maybe it’s just silly...” and looked on in horror as the woman flipped through the pages scanning them quickly with her eyes. Slowly the woman’s lips started to curve into a smile as she pulled a business card from her wallet and handed it to Lori.

“Hon, I would really love it if you gave me a copy of this. Contact me at this number here and we can chat. I think you’re onto something here, but you need a little fine tuning. Let me know when you can meet, let’s avoid the coffee next time though!” and the woman checked her watch, winked, and headed out the door again. When Lori looked down at the business card in her hand, she had to read it a few times in shock.

Molly Henricks

MH Publishing House

A feeling of fate washed over Lori. This couldn’t be possible, could it? She called the office number on the card and managed to get a time slot to meet with Molly Hendricks later that afternoon. Inspired, she used one of her sick days to get out of work and dashed back home to find something other than her drab work clothes and made an attempt at looking professional. Am I really doing this? she asked herself upon entering the beautiful office building. Molly greeted her warmly and without any hesitation began to once again scan through the story, that smile coming back to her lips. By the time she put the pages down she told Lori she wanted this book to be printed and distributed by her company after it was sent through her editor. Lori couldn’t believe what she was hearing, this was a dream come true! Lori was in disbelief that all because she had picked up this little black book of gratitude her whole life was beginning to turn around. Feeling grateful had made her feel good and had connected her to this woman who could see the value and the passion in what she was writing.

A few more months, a few drafts, and a beautiful cover later, what she had thought was her silly little story hit the shelves. Upon opening her first cheque and could have fainted. This can’t be right! There neatly printed in the amount box was $20,000.00 and her own name. This little story that she had worked on with gratitude and love had quickly become a best-seller and Molly was telling her that they wanted the next installment as quickly as she could type it up. With a little love and gratitude in your heart, the Universe can bring you even more things to be grateful for in your life and you can achieve your highest dreams. Don’t ever give up on them, your life changing moment could be right around the corner.