Not too long after I hit publish on my post about starting a school, I realized that I can’t be as absent from the blog as I had written, because there is no way I can let November go by without doing another 30 Days of Thanks post.
Two years ago, I started a tradition of blogging about what I’m thankful for every day during the month of November, and I ended with 30 days worth of posts about friendship, food, place, amazing moments with my little girl, and only a post (or two) saying I was thankful for the end of the day. I originally started it as a means of reminding myself that gratitude should extend beyond one day and that even in moments or on days when things are less than ideal, there are always things for which to be thankful. It turned out, the project was also in perfect keeping with my goal of finding joy even when I’m not quite where I want to be in life.
Last year, on top of blogging about my thankfulness myself I also invited others to join. Between bloggers and people in the Facebook event we had more than 100 people participating. I so very much enjoyed reading what others are thankful about and this community turned out to be incredibly wonderful when we received the awful news about Chris’s job situation.
I loved my 30 Days of Thanks projects so much that I’m bringing it back this year even though it might feel like I am too busy at times. But we are never too busy for a moment of gratitude! I may not blog paragraphs about my gratitude every day, but I will definitely at least get one sentence and one photo every day this month. I’d like to invite you to join me again this year. Here’s how you can participate:
- If you have a blog, blog each day sharing what you’re thankful for on that day. If you don’t have a blog, you are welcome to leave a comment saying what you’re thankful for at the bottom of each of my daily blog posts. You are also welcome to come and post links you your blog posts in the comments of my posts – I didn’t get many takers on the linkies last year so I am going to forgoe the work of setting them up this year, but I really like reading other people’s blogs so please come share your posts!
- Join this year’s 30 Days of Thanks event on my Facebook Page. In this event you can share links to your 30 Days of Thanks blog posts, write your thanks on the wall, or upload photos and videos if you don’t have a blog. Last year this turned into a wonderful supportive group with people “liking” one another’s posts, visiting other blogs and commenting. It was great! You can also join this event even if you don’t want to share your gratitude publically. Just join the Facebook event to show you are participating and take a moment each day to recognize your gratitude however works best for you.
- *NEW* this year, I’ll also be doing 30 days of thanks on Instagram. Post a photo of whatever you’re thankful for and use #thankfulall30 so the rest of us can find them (you can also tag @aucoeur to make sure I see it). I’ll be sharing some of my favorite photos from this hashtag so don’t forget it!
Please also invite others to participate and share what you’re doing with them. I’d love to see a practice of daily gratitude spread around the world. You can easily post the 30 Days of Thanks button on your blog by copying the following HTML:
<div align="center"><a href="https://amberhinds.com/2013/11/01/30-days-of-thanks-2/" title="30 Days of Thanks"><img src="https://amberhinds.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/30-Days-of-Thanks-button.png" alt="30 Days of Thanks" style="border:none;" /></a></div>
Please feel free to include it in your 30 Days of Thanks blog posts or use it across the web. You can link people to this blog post explaining about the project or you can invite them to join the event on Facebook. Last year, we had 100+ people participating in 30 Days of Thanks and this year I would love to have 200 — lets spread as much gratitude this month as we can!
I’ll be back later today with my first thankful post.
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