Gratitude is the key to joy. Start by writing down, saying out loud or thanking God for three things for which you are grateful. Here’s a peek at my list to get you thinking:

  • a God who loves me with a relentless love, and His Son Jesus who is all I need even when I don't always believe it

  • the four boys who call me Mom

  • The Oaks Academy, where my boys spent their first 9 years of school - a place filled with people striving for reconciliation among races, cultures and socioeconomic status

  • my boyfriend who is also my best friend

  • my friends with whom I feel blessed beyond words to share life

  • soul conversations

  • learning new things and rediscovering things I had long forgotten

  • mountains - climbing them, backpacking through them, skiing on them, breathing in the air around them, sitting in awe at the foot of them, feasting my eyes on the flowers randomly growing out of them, communing with God atop them

  • painting, mostly admiring true artists, but also experimenting with my own acrylics and watercolors

  • the lake house we were so privileged to have in our family for 30 years and all of the wakeboarding, tubing, skiing and jammin' to summer tunes on the boat

  • hardy laughter, especially when you don't even know what's really THAT funny

  • a look into someone's eyes that results in a moment of connected souls (and I don't mean this just romantically; it can mean looking into a child's eyes and trying to see what God has created in him/her)

  • spicy food, pizza, cake and candy, in no particular order

  • the teenagers at the schools where I work. I love watching the catharsis that occurs as they navigate life from childhood to adulthood

  • live theater or a great concert

  • a stroll through Telluride, Colo., especially a slow perusal at Between the Covers (a book store, you filfthy-minded readers!)

  • the sound of the ocean waves hitting the shore

  • good books, especially ones by writers who dare to be honest and vulnerable (like Anne Lamott, Brene Brown, Rachel Hollis and Glennon Doyle)

  • music of all kinds, but especially songs that stir and awaken my heart

  • writing

  • Young Life and their camps... especially Wilderness Ranch, near Creede, Colorado

  • Annie - yes, as in "Little Orphan" because she is a survivor who finds love in the most unpredictable and pure way... by refusing to let her hope die, by being true to herself and by filling another human being in a way that only she could do.