A silent but solid feeling of gratitude caused by; Music, slow motion, cooking and presence. 

8. p.m. and still light if I choose to turn my face towards the west.
Adequate to be grateful for.

Little too late to bed last night. One hour invested in Summertime. Spring Cleaning, and then 10 kilometers of walking the dog in the rain, while chatting with friends on the phone.  

Can feel my eyelids getting heavy, and feeling grateful right at this very moment for being able to just crash on the couch with my daughter and a movie. 

Today it seems as if I'm going down almost the same road I took yesterday ;-) 
This time however with my son, and now driving through the streets of Northern Zealand, rather than walking the streets of Copenhagen. Yesterday clothes-shopping for a 14-year old. Today shopping hardball toy-gun for a 12-year old....

This exact toy is not part of my gratitude! Except for the fact that it'll move his gaming from immobility in a room full of dirty dishes to lots of mobility, fresh air and dirty clothes in a forest with a group of peers physically right next to him. I might be old fashioned, but I kinda like that. 

My gratitude however is mostly related to the contact I've been having with him all day, and the gratitude he is world champion in expressing - and always have been expressing - e.g. for the stack of pancakes with strawberry jam that was produced and consumed after having returned back home with the "out-door activity goods". 

It doesn't even have to happen to you. 

When people you love either struggle to find their way back to the job market, and hopes constantly rises and falls, or are courageously dealing with illness, and dearly wish that they may keep their beautiful long brown hair, just one more day, in order to make it through a birthday party.... then gratitude can seem quite far away. 

What you feel is mostly pain! 

And then walking down the streets of Copenhagen, with your daughter after work. Rain pouring down, and the sky is grey. You're both cold and the bag is way too heavy. Suddenly the smell of warm Belgian waffles tinkles your noise. 

You both order a waffle - one for each, and one only (the stack in the picture is not our plate :-) And then for as long as it takes to eat your waffle, while enjoying the taste of the apple and the cinnamon within, benefitting from the warmth of waffles-bakery (a place you've passed so many times before, but never felt tempted to visit before), taking pleasure in not having to carry your bag for a while, and looking at the wonderful girl right next to you. 

And gratitude does once again sneak in on you. 
Silently and just for a little while.
But still, it feels good! 

Sometimes even the smallest things can make us feel gratitude, if we choose to make those little things count. 

Today I left home without an umbrella. Simply couldn't find one. Must have lost them all somewhere, someday. Or had them broken in a stormy wind, somehow. The forecast expected rain, but I really wanted to walk from workplace to workplace. 

Finished work at one place, headed for the next. The rain had just stopped, and the sun almost shined, while I walked the streets of Copenhagen. Streets all decorated in light green and yellow. 

Even little things counts.

Returning from work, and finding warm, fresh baked fennel bread, baked with lots of care, by my mother in law. 
Thank you!!!

Got this new wonderful colleague in Global Mindset about a month ago. A wonderful colleague with an exquisite taste in foods. 

Going to the office today, and joining him at an extra desk in his office, I was immediately served fresh spearmint hot-tea'ish-drink, ginger biscuits, and the best chocolate, I have tasted for a very long time. And greeted with this smile. 

At the train station, on my way to the Global Mindset office, a young handicapped man asked me if I would hold his hand, while walking down the stairs to the train, and to the nearest bench. It felt a little strange, and quite intimate suddenly holding hands with a complete stranger, and at the same time very natural and quite nice. 

"Maybe...", I thought on my way back home late this afternoon, "..that's actually how it works; You give a little care and attention at one place, and receive a whole lot in return somewhere else!?"

I kinda like that thought; "Think about it; what if care is actually passed on from one person to the next the entire day, all over Copenhagen, or anywhere else, and then crossing borders - back and forth". 

....Well that's how I spend my trip back home. Daydreaming about a chain reaction like that ;-) 

And to be honest, I actually don't know, which I liked the most. The giving or the receiving part today, but both definitely qualified for my gratitude of today. 

Absolutely not the best photo on my blog! Taken with one finger half covering the lens of my phone. And totally unable to hold the phone still, while my entire body is moving to the rhythm of the music tickling in my ear....

But at this very moment, I felt Summer-happiness in every single cell of my body. And therefore this was the moment of gratitude today. 

I had just been running a virtual group coaching with people from Australia, Germany, France and Denmark, looking into their action plans, their learning experiences, and their stakeholder dialogues based on a 3 day-training session with Global Mindset in CPH in February.

So much implementation had taken place in this group since then! 
I was totally energized by their actions and determination, and 100% grateful for my job!! 

Seated in the car afterwards, on my way to a meeting with some really great people, it was as if everything was whispering; Suuuuummertime....

I know it's March! Only 10 degrees today, and yesterday some of my flowers actually froze to dead. 
But this morning my state of mind was; Summer.

Some people, at least in DK, have this saying; "Small children, small problems. Bigger children, bigger problems." 
Maybe they're right, maybe they're not. But of course raising children isn't picture perfect all the time, and in our house, the days when my kids just HAD to sleep next to each other, each and every night, are long gone, and replaced with quite a few quarrels.

But small problems or bigger problems, that doesn't really make that much of a difference. Having my daughter back this afternoon, after two sleep-overs with friends, seeing her only for a short while, before she disappears to her room, after having however made smoothies for everyone, it just occurred to me how deeply and incredible grateful I am. 
And I am not just grateful for having been gifted with children, I am incredibly grateful that exactly these two kids, Kaisa and Julius Aagaard, were to be mine. 

I'm quite sure that most parents feel the exact same way about their kids, but that doesn't make this kind of gratitude less special or less important to be dwelling upon once in a while. 
Especially when having a teen and a preteen I guess ;-)