As I step away from the keyboard to spend the next four days on feasting and football, family and friends, I’ve been thinking about how much I have to be grateful for.
It’s true 2009 will go down as one of the most godawful years the modern media business has ever seen.
Even so, for me it could have been a lot worse. And as 2009 shinnies up to 2010, things are definitely looking up.
So, here are the 10 things I’m grateful for this Thanksgiving:
1. The editors I work with on a regular basis – Carroll, Elizabeth and Jonathan especially – for being good role models as I discover whether the grass really is greener on the other side of the fence.
2. The editors who took a chance on me – There were more than a few of them this year, as I hustled to make up for work lost when regular clients cut their budgets by pitching magazines, online news outlets and other publications I hadn’t written for before. Some new assignments worked out beautifully, others not so much. But I learned from all of them.
3. The media community in the city where I live - As the ongoing commentary in the wake of last weekend’s WeMaketheMedia conference proves, media people in Portland are earnest and passionate about what they do, and where and how they’ll do it in the future. It’s not just me. Ask Bill Lascher – coming up from Los Angeles for the conference sealed his decision to move here. Welcome Bill.
4. The Online News Association – If you hadn’t held your annual conference in San Francisco, I couldn’t have afforded the time or $$$ to go. But you did, and I did, and got to spend three days learning new stuff and meeting old friends, a winning combination of ever there was one.
5. My family – You tease nag me over the time I spend on Twitter, LinkedIn and my blog. But you’ve been behind me 100 percent as I’ve jumped into this or that new venture, even if it’s meant more work around the old homestead on your part (next year, maybe you’ll even do that part without grumbling – then I’ll really have something to be thankful for).
6. Ron Doyle, my website designer – The inspired mind behind WordCount’s facelift – making me just as proud of the blog’s design as the words I stuff into it.
7. Old Faithful – You give me a few scares this year, and you’re slowing down in your old age, but you still boot up every morning and haven’t crashed in who knows how long. Hang in there, we’ll get a new hard drive in you yet.
8. Twitter - I fulfilled one of my 2009 New Year’s Resolutions to do more public speaking thanks to the Twitter follower who broadcast about a friend of a friend needing a speaker for an upcoming event, then retweeting my reply that I was ready, willing and available. Since then once’s thing’s led to another and I’ve given talks to groups big and small on writing, hyperlocal news, digital journalism and social media – and had a blast doing it.
9. My writer friends – Even though I some of you I know only virtually, you’ve there whenever I need another writer’s perspective on something, or just to hang out with when I’m avoiding a rewrite.
10. You – the readers of this blog. You’ve prodded me to write about things I never would have thought of on my own and in the process helped make this endeavor bigger and more successful than I’d ever dreamed.
This Thanksgiving, what are you grateful for?
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Ms Rafter, loved your list, Go go go. Here’s my take on gratitude moments like yours:
1. Even when things look bad and you feel down and depressed about the future, and your future specifically, remember how magical and exciting it is just to be alive — as a human being! a DNA miracle! — on this living, breathing, beautiful Earth!
2. A “gratitude moment” is a gift to yourself. Make is a daily habit.
3. A “gratitude moment” is a gift to yourself.Make it real.
4. A “gratitude moment” is a gift to yourself. Make is a lifeline to your future.
5. “Gratitude moments” are for everyone. They are gifts for the taking, and giving for for the giving, too.
6. A “gratitude moment” can occur at any time of the day or night. It can even become a part of a dream scenario while you are sleeping. Sleep on it.
7. “A gratitude moment” is a non-binding contract between you and God. The more you make it a binding contract, the happier you will be. For sure.
8. “A gratitude moment” does not have to be expressed verbally or written down for it to have an effect. It can also be an unspoken, inner conversation between you and God.
10. A recent Associated Press news report, published on Thanksgiving Day, reported that “Giving Thanks Brings Health and Happiness”, adding in subheadline: “Thanksgiving just once a year? Researchers say regular gratitude
promotes well-being and is good for the soul.”
12. According to Matt Sedensky, a reporter for the Associated Press, academics have long theorized that expressions of thanks promote
health and happiness and give optimism and energy to the downtrodden.
Now, the study of gratitude has become a surprisingly burgeoning
field, and research indicates being thankful might help people
actually feel better. There’s a catch, however: You have to say thanks
more than just once a year. Every day is best!
13. Gratitude must be expressed, verbally or non-verbally, often, repeatedly, for it to have an impact on your life. Says one psychology professor who has studied the subject: “If you don’t do it regularly you’re not going to get the benefits,”
according to Dr Sonja Lyubomirsky, at the University of
California. “It’s kind of like if you went to the gym once
a year. What would be the good of that?”
14. “Gratitude leads people to act in virtuous or more selfless ways,”
says a recent research paper in Current Directions in Psychological Science, adding: “It builds
social support, which we know is tied to both physical and
psychological well being.”
Aww, shucks. *blush* You have no idea how thankful I am for you.
If your words are the stuffing, my design is the turkey! A pretty tasty pair, indeed, but let’s be honest: the stuffing is always better than the bird.
[Insert metaphor related to green bean casserole]