One of the beautiful things we can express as human beings is gratitude. Incorporating it regularly in your day can help you keep perspective and balance. Especially now as Thanksgiving approaches, gratitude thoughts permeate my mind.

There is so much to be thankful for. As we know, life is far from perfect. We are far from perfect. However, in the midst of life’s busyness, pausing to acknowledge the positive enhances our joy and brings us peace. There is much to be grateful for. Take time to reflect and appreciate the wonders that surround you. Luckily, there is an endless supply once you put “gratitude” on your radar. It’s impossible to capture everything. I’d like to share a few from my list.

Linda’s List - I Am Grateful For:

• Loved ones here and gone. I love and appreciate my family and friends. Some are in my daily life, others are at a distance, and many have passed away. No matter where they are, they are always with me. I am grateful for them and don’t hold back from letting them know how I feel.

• Sun and rain. On sunny days, my entire being feels lighter, colors are more vibrant, I feel less bothered by small annoyances, and I can see more clearly. When the rain comes, I love those days when I can stay inside with a good book, hot tea, and a warm, soft blanket.

• Working and non-working parts. When we're young and when we age, our bodies aren't always able to do as we wish. We either lack the skills or have lost them. There's the time in between when are bodies work as we expect. It’s so easy to take our health for granted. I appreciate all that is working right now.

• Sweet and sour. Nourishment is essential to our existence. I am thankful for the basics, but also am passionate about certain tastes, textures and scents. The short list includes coffee ice cream, almost anything chocolate, black licorice jelly beans, concord grapes, all berries, tomato with mozzarella and basil, grilled salmon, and lemons. I am grateful that my senses are working and allow me to fully appreciate these foods.

• Activity and quiet. Our house was always a bevy of activity as we raised our daughters. We encouraged them to invite friends over and loved having a full house. They are now both away at college. We have become empty nesters and it’s much quieter. Soon the house will be lively again for the holiday. I am grateful for both the energy of a full house and the quiet of less.

• Organization and chaos. As a professional organizer, you might think I only like extreme order. In fact, I am grateful for both order and chaos. I appreciate a certain amount of organization with room for a dash of chaos. I’m grateful for the dichotomy and flow between the two.

• Status quo and change. I recognize that change is essential for growth. I go through periods where I’m actively stirring the pot. But there are also times where I am able to just let things simmer and be. Both have value.

• Structured and unstructured days.  More of my days have a plan to them then not. I function well with a schedule. To balance that, I also need days that let me just “float.” I can wake up when my body is ready, without a special agenda, and do whatever I feel like. I can do or not do. I need and am grateful for both types of days.

• Old and new friends. There’s a folk song we used to sing when I was a kid that went, “Make new friends and keep the old. One is silver and the other gold.” There’s nothing quite like our “old” friends where we share a history. They knew us when. We share a lifetime of bonds and experiences. With new friends, we are in the discovery mode. The ties are in the making.  I am thankful for all of my relationships.

What are you feeling grateful about right now? Take a gratitude break. There’s space below in the comment area to share your thoughts.

One never knows where inspiration will come from.  A friend recently told me an inspiring story, which I’ll share with you. It fits with the “Wonderfully Human” theme I’m writing about this month and also corresponds with chapter 11 in my book, The Other Side of Organized. We are not perfect beings, but human beings. Life isn’t just about organizing and getting things done, but also about living and enjoying our lives. It’s about stopping to appreciate those lovely moments that happen each day.

This is the story. My friend was working at her desk one weekend afternoon. She was debating whether to continue working or to go out and play. All of the sudden a card from the shelf above her desk fell on her head. The quote on the front said, “Often we fool ourselves into believing that we will get done what needs to be done, and then we will live our life.” She got up and as she said, “left to live my life!” At that moment her priorities became crystal clear. Work could wait. She knew it was more important to nourish another part of her being.

I’m not saying that we totally abandon our lists and commitments. I’m merely suggesting that we don’t get too caught up in the belief that we can’t enjoy or relax or have fun until we get everything completed. Our lists will never be done because new things will appear, just as quickly as items are crossed off. It’s a matter of balance. Make time every day for rejuvenation, relaxation and fun. It’s not frivolous. It’s essential.

We can be renewed and have fun in many ways. Stepping outside for a few minutes to breath in the fresh air and enjoy the gorgeous fall colors could be enough. Sipping a leisurely cup of coffee while having a face-to-face chat with a favorite friend might do it.  Allowing your “silly side” to appear in public is a sure way to have fun.

What’s does “living your life,” mean to you? 

@2011 Photo by Linda SamuelsLife has mishaps. Stuff happens even to the most organized people that interrupt all those well thought out plans. I don’t plan everything. That's too restrictive. But I do a certain amount of planning and organizing. When things don't work out as anticipated, I enlist four coping strategies: humor, flexibility, positive spin and other people.

So, the "plan" this past weekend was to write, update financials, catch-up on correspondence and cook in prep for the impending snowstorm. Thinking I’d have a few solid days ahead to work, I gladly went out with friends for dinner, a movie and fun on Friday night. With list and plan in hand, on Saturday morning I was ready to get going. First, I headed to the grocery store. As I left the market, the snow was already falling quickly. When I arrived home, I put on music while I unpacked groceries and began cooking. There was a huge pot of vegetable soup warming on the stove and a pot roast simmering in the crockpot. I was happy and content as I sang along to the music, smelled the delicious kitchen aromas and watched the beautiful snow covering the brightly colored fall leaves.

The plan was moving along seamlessly when all of the sudden, the power went out. Everything stopped. The soup was done, but the roast had hours left to cook. Thinking that the power would be restored soon, I figured there was hope for the roast. I was wrong. Days passed. We had no heat, no power, no phone or Internet, and no roast.

The other work I’d planned for the weekend also needed electricity. The longer the power outage lasted, the colder our home got. It was time to bundle up. I wore many layers of clothes (I could barely move), extra blankets at night, and candles and flashlights to illuminate the way. On the positive side, no power gave us more quiet time to talk, sit, read and just be without the pull of electronics, beeps or buzzes calling for our attention. It was a gift- a tech-free vacation.

Friends and family extended lovely offers to use their showers, beds, warmth and electrical outlets. While we appreciated their generosity, we opted to wait things out. We went out to more movies, visited more local eateries and became Starbucks’ fixtures, hanging out with other locals out of power. I even met a USA Today reporter at Starbucks who interviewed me about how we were coping.

The power outage and its inconvenience were a disguised blessing. It made me grateful for all the times that life goes smoothly and closer to the plan. I realized that when life gets off track, friends, family, flexibility, humor and a positive attitude are there to lift my spirits, give me perspective and ease the way.

What is a strategy you use to cope with life’s curve balls? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Come join in the conversation. 

Gratitude is something I think about every day. The smallest things like the joy I feel when I see a vibrant color to the larger ones, like being thankful for a loving family. As Thanksgiving arrives this week, gratitude and thankfulness are in my thoughts even more than usual.

My husband and I have always enjoyed having gatherings. There’s nothing quite like bringing positive energy and love into our home. Even before we were married, we hosted our share of events. The tradition has continued over the last 27 years to include birthdays, holidays and impromptu gatherings.

In particular, we love hosting Thanksgiving. Each time it rolls around, we reminisce about two of our classic Thanksgiving adventures.  No matter how many times we recall these stories, we continue to delight in them.

The first Thanksgiving we hosted was shortly after we got married. We invited both sides of the family to our loft in Brooklyn. Steve was very serious about cooking the main dishes (turkey, stuffing and gravy.) He worked for hours, maybe days, preparing the gravy. At the last minute, when it was time to strain the giblets from the liquid, and right as our guests were about it arrive, I heard this big scream coming from the kitchen. I then heard many other explicatives, which I won’t repeat here. It sounded like someone was wounded.

“I’m grateful for the mishaps of life.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVPO

Just as his aunt and uncle arrived, Steve poured the gravy into the strainer without a dish below to catch the gravy. As he poured, he realized his “prize” gravy was going right down the drain! Right after that happened, his aunt walked over to check things out and said to him, “Do you think you have enough gravy?” Distressed, Steve turned to me and asked me to call his mother to see if she could bring some extra gravy. Thank goodness for mothers!

It wasn’t funny at the time, but over the years, it’s become one of our favorite stories. It makes us laugh every time think about it. I’m grateful for the mishaps of life. They remind us that we’re not perfect, we are flexible and we can laugh at ourselves.

Fast-forward about five years from our first Thanksgiving. This particular Thanksgiving was the first one we hosted as new parents. Our oldest daughter, now 20, was only six months old at the time. Steve and I remember waking up early to prepare everything. About an hour or so before our family and friends arrived, we commented to one another how smoothly things were going and how not stressed out we were. I suppose at that point we should have knocked on wood for good luck.

As I was preparing the table, I notice a tremendous amount of smoke coming from the kitchen. Steve yelled out, “CALL the Fire Department!” The smoke alarms went off, our daughter started crying and the cat was meowing wildly. One of the turkeys (we cooked two that year) had caught on fire, which in turn made our oven catch fire.

The Fire Department showed up quickly, but Steve had already extinguished the fire. His Boy Scout training has come in handy countless times, including that Thanksgiving! Twenty people were expecting Thanksgiving dinner and we had to continue preparing, even after the “incident.” Once the excitement subsided and the fire was extinguished, we continued cooking and airing out the house. We had to open all the windows and doors to get the smoke out. Our poor guests froze that year and had to wait a long time until the meal was ready.

But in the end, it was another wonderful Thanksgiving providing us with lots of happy memories. We were surrounded by the people we loved most, no one was hurt, we ended up getting a new stove and as a bonus, we ate smoked turkey.

Steve and I had our Thanksgiving planning meeting yesterday. We figured out who was doing what, when we’d do things and reviewed our notes from previous years. And of course, we had to retell our Thanksgiving stories and enjoy a good laugh together. Who knows what surprises will be in store this year? All I do know is that I’m very grateful to have all the people we love most coming to our home to celebrate the holiday of thanks and gratitude.

Do you have any Thanksgiving stories or tales of gratitude? Please share them.