When I went looking this week for books about thankfulness, one of the ones that isn’t aimed at children is already on my bookshelf: Ann Voscamp’s One Thousand Gifts. An inaugural attempt by the author, it spent some 65 weeks on the New York Times Best Sellers list.

Not bad for a “farmer’s wife” (which is basically saying that she’s a farmer, too) from rural Ontario.

Despite the fact that it was wildly popular (apparently), it’s not a real favorite of mine: the author’s breathy, metaphorical style is not one that resonates with me – I do better with a little ironic humor thrown in now and then. Instead, I find myself squinting at the page, trying to decipher the meaning behind “all things wooden-hard giving way to the sky” or “the clay eyes shot red for the sacred seeing.”

What I did find inspiring was the author’s attempt to crawl out from a pit of despair and gloom by engaging in a dare: to make the mother of all gratitude lists. Voscamp kept a gratitude journal, just a simple coil-bound scribbler, open on the counter and moment-by-moment recorded the lovely and memorable “gifts” she witnessed in her everyday life.

243. Clean sheets smelling like wind.

513. Boys jiggling blue Jell-O.

904. First frost’s crunch.

Here’s what Wikipedia has to say under the entry ‘Gratitude Journal’: One of the early research studies on gratitude journals…found that “counting one’s blessings” in a journal led to improved psychological and physical functioning. Participants who recorded weekly journals, each consisting of five things they were grateful for, were more optimistic towards the upcoming week and life as a whole, spent more time exercising, and had fewer symptoms of physical illness. Participants who kept daily gratitude journals reported increased overall gratitude, positive affect, enthusiasm, determination, and alertness. They were also more likely to help others and make progress towards their personal goals, compared to those who did not keep gratitude journals. 

Wow! If writing down five things can do that, just think what one thousand could do! Granted, Voscamp’s list wasn’t made all at once, but the practice of gratitude did its trick. Which was to turn her eyes away from the despair in the heart and toward the world around her with the simple physical exercise of writing good things down.

The secret of gratitude is learning this: it’s not about us. Those many things that we can write down in our fancy gratitude journals or old scribblers are not things we are owed or that we deserve. A stream of geese in the air, a child’s sticky kiss, a Thanksgiving plate piled high – these are at the same time both magical and ordinary. Our only duty is to recognize them as the gifts that they are.