It’s easy to be grateful when the sun’s out and your rose-colored glasses are not askew, but there are gloomier days when finding something to be thankful for becomes an almost impossible chore, especially when someone tells you that you should. How can you be thankful for anything when… (read the rest on the Thankfulfor blog here)

Prior to Father’s Day, we asked members of the Thankfulfor community to start posting why they were thankful for a dad in their lives. We collected their expressions of gratitude and this book is the result.

For best viewing, click the Fullscreen link below and use your keyboard arrows to turn…

Thankfulfor Dads

This is awesome - please share with a dad in your life!!

The other day I received an email challenging me to think about my hearing and asking when I last focused my gratitude on sound. It struck a chord with me because I am actually quite sensitive to sounds. As someone who cringes at loud noises, regularly craves silence yet revels in the most pleasant sounds - from music to nature - I felt compelled to really think about this topic. 

As I sit here, I’m thankfulfor for the silence of my home after weeks of nonstop events, meetings and social gatherings. The sound of occasional trucks accelerating outside reminds me that there is a world outside my window. I’m thankfulfor for the lack of construction noise which drove me crazy last summer. I’ve also heard no sirens today which is always a good thing. 

According to Hear the World, 16% of the world’s population is affected by hearing loss. Do you know anyone affected? I do. So today my focus is on appreciating my favorite sounds.

Waves crashing on the shore or just lapping against the beach. Both are equally soothing to me. And thinking about the beach reminds me of laying in the sand - if you put your ear to the ground and scratch your fingers or toes into the sand, you can hear it loudly vibrate through the ground. I haven’t been to the beach in a while but I can hear the sound in my head, with the sound of gulls flying by. I guess they go together.

Music of all sorts. Classical instruments like piano, guitar, violin, horns. When the clock gets close to around 6 or 7pm, I’ll start hunting for songs I’m in the mood for… some days it’s all folksy and jamming, others it’s more classical. I love that some songs can take me back to a time and place. There are songs that can instantly lift my spirits - others that can make me cry. 

The sound of my family’s voices… friends too. Yesterday I had a special lunch with a longtime girlfriend and last night I heard another friend’s voice from California through my phone. Hearing their voices is like coming home. And tonight I look forward to hearing my partner sing to me - in a whisper or at the top of his lungs in the car. I’ll take either.

It’s easy for me to forget the sounds of nature from the concrete jungle that is my neighborhood. But it’s here and when I open my door I can hear the wind in the trees, birds chirping, dogs barking. The other day I heard the whoosh of the sky opening up to sheets of rain and some low rumbling thunder. I love all of those sounds.

Now I hear my tea kettle whistling - so as I go pour myself some tea, I open it up to you to consider your hearing… what sounds are you most grateful for?  Post your thoughts in your own personal (and free) journal at http://thankfulfor.com.

And consider entering the Hear the World photo competition by taking a photo of yourself or someone else in the “conscious pose of hearing” as seen in my pics above. You can win a Polaroid 300, iTunes gift cards and even get published in Hear the World magazine. 

We may appreciate our fathers throughout the year, but Father’s Day seems to be the time that we get around to voicing it. Thankfulfor is celebrating dads—and all that they do for us—from now through Sunday, June 20th. Check the blog regularly, as there will be new posts honoring dads… read the rest of this post here

Snag one of these badges for your site to remind people about honoring a dad in their life this week…

<a href=”http://thankfulfor.com”><img src=”http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4027/4704480661_02ccec3c32_o.gif” width=”140” height=”66” alt=”Thankfulfor Dads”/></a>

<a href=”http://thankfulfor.com”><img src=”http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1304/4704480683_1c1506f350_o.gif” width=”142” height=”37” alt=”Thankfulfor Dads”/></a>

I love these books so much I decided to repost it… good summer reads :) 

They sound scary until you see their covers…

Today I want to introduce you to three little books that have big impact. Each of these authors approaches life’s big questions from different angles. Other than their small size what else do they have in common? All are easy reads, are deeper than they appear to be, make great gifts and have the potential to become a bedside favorite. I keep all three nearby so I can just re-read a page now and again.

The Meaning Of Lifeby Bradley Trevor Greive

Don’t let the title fool you into thinking this is some deep, heavy tome that would better serve as a door stop. Quite the opposite, this spunky little book is compiled of gorgeous and humorous animal photos with a few words of poignant commentary at the bottom of each. This is one of those books that makes you think - but forces you to laugh and enjoy the process, leaving the questions echoing in your mind to marinate on. It’s great for adults, teens, kids - anyone with a sense of humor, an appreciation for animals and a desire to challenge your own thoughts around the meaning of life.

Arriving at Your Own Door: 108 Lessons in Mindfulness by Jon Kabat-Zinn

Another little green book, also filled with beautiful nature images, but chock full of excerpts from Kabat-Zinn’s original work Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World Through Mindfulness. Each page has a numbered passage, a nugget of wisdom boiled down to it’s most simple meaning. I’ve savored this book for over a year now and never get tired of flipping it open to a random page, which seems to have an immediate calming effect. It’s also an Oprah favorite (apparently she’s given quite a few as gifts and has them in each bedroom for guests). Here’s one short passage to give you a taste:

#34 Dream Reality

We are caught believing in and living in a dream reality, invested in it emotionally, unwilling and unable to see through it because of our own personal attachment to the dream, especially if it seems a good one.

This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life by David Foster Wallace

Some of you may recognize writer/philosopher David Foster Wallace - this book distills what he believed to be his most important life lessons into a profound and humorous manifesto. I love the simplicity of this book on every level - from the plain white cover with just the title and a tiny goldfish in the bottom right corner, to the layout - just one sentence (short or long) per page. It’s a very quick read but powerfully written in a colloquial style that will challenge you from page 1. The major themes are How do we keep from going through life unconsciously, comfortably entrenched in habit? and How do we remove ourselves from the foreground of our thoughts and achieve compassion? Everyone who has ever been frustrated at the tedium of life after college should read this book.