In follow up to my post yesterday about “The Gratitude Diaries” podcast, I want to share a little example of gratitude in action. Not because I have it all figured out, but just an example of how I’m trying to personally implement gratitude in my own life.
The other night the boys had their first virtual summer workshop through their music school. (As part of their lesson package, they always have some group music, art or drama classes during the summer to supplement their private piano lessons.)
Tuesday’s class was an art class. They were going to make agamographs, which I learned is when you take two separate drawings and combine them so that from one angle you see one image, but from the other you see the opposite image. Hard to explain… but they are cool.
Ethan isn’t that into art (at all!), but we had to pick a couple of workshops and this one fit into our schedule. He wasn’t too thrilled going into it, especially given that it had to be done virtually this year.
Well, the boys ended up LOVING the project! The young art teacher did a great job of engaging the kids all over the Google Meet platform, the boys got really into it and they were proud of their finished projects.
After they signed off, I said to Ethan, “Wait, I thought you don’t like art????” 😉 He replied, “Well, I don’t, but thiskind of art was actually pretty cool!” I had the passing thought that the teacher did a very nice job and the whole class was well done, but that was that and I went about my night.
The next morning, I had another thought! If I felt the teacher did a really great job, why didn’t I tell her that? Clearly, she managed to inspire my “non-art loving child” to become excited about art, even if only for a 45 minute period. Why keep that to myself?
I took the 2 minutes it took me to draft a quick email to the teacher, thanking her for a great class. I told her how much the boys enjoyed it and even said that Ethan really doesn’t like art much, but this had him excited! I copied the music school director on, too, so that she would know the teacher did a great job and that we were grateful for the experience.
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| My non-art loving child, smiling while doing art. 🙂 |
The director wrote back to me and thanked ME profusely for the feedback. She said they were all a little nervous about how these virtual sessions would go this summer, and she was so glad to get some positive feedback after the first one.
The whole experience felt fantastic! I felt good, the teacher probably felt good that her boss now knows that she did a nice job running the class, and the director felt good that the program was a success. WIN-WIN-WIN! 😊
I’m going to make a more concerted effort to expressgratitude like this more often. I keep my gratitude journal and I FEEL grateful often, but I could do a better job of expressing that gratitude to people I encounter in my life that impact me in some way.
Let’s start a chain reaction…pick someone to express gratitude to today and pass it on! 😊
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for some new skincare products that I ordered recently, a new Ole Henriksen Banana Bright Vitamin C serum and the C-Rush Brightening Gel Crème moisturizer! They have felt so good on my face and I’m just grateful for my little skincare routine which feels nice each day.
GRATEFUL KAE 
It makes such a difference! This week I went to Nordstrom rack to buy some interview clothes. They had just opened the fitting room and I thanked everyone there profusely for that. I know the employees working did not make that call but I know they get flack from customers for things they have no control over all the time. I wanted them to feel some of the gratitude and bonus it was enriching for me too.
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As a teacher, those notes make all the difference! I know I so appreciated hearing what was going well as we navigated online learning this spring. I've never heard of agamographs before–how cool!
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I fully agree that we should be telling more our gratitude to people. it's really a win-win situation, it costs us nothing but make a big difference to the other person. 🙂
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That's awesome! I know what you mean, it really wasn't up to the workers, but still…I am sure they appreciated hearing it anyway.
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It's good to hear from a teacher that those comments really do help! I need to remember to thank their regular school teachers more often too, on a day besides "Teacher Appreciation Day!" 🙂
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I love this! We should all make an effort to express our gratitude more often!
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Glad you sent a note to the teacher. I feel so bad for teachers right now. COVID has totally changed how they do their job and I know many of them are struggling – especially when they see all the comments parents are making about fall plans on places like Facebook. So good for you for brightening that teachers day!! And that is a really cool art project. I'm like you son and HATED art when I was a child. 😉
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