The Jar Of Gratitude - A Different Look Back on 2015

Exactly a year ago, I started I my first jar of gratitude. The idea is to put a little piece of paper with whatever you were thankful for into an empty jar at the beginning of the year such that, at the end of the year, you can review all the good things that happened to you during the year.

It is not only that you put things like a win in the lottery into the jar but also the small things - such that you become aware of how many good things cross your way no matter how small they might seems at first.

I just emptied the jar and counted 21 pieces of paper, 21 moments mostly around Hafl and me (to be honest, it was actually a little bit biased as it was intended for this blog). Sure there were tons of great moments in 2015, 3 of the 21 actually have nothing to do with horse and riding (maybe I should have a separate jar of gratitude for normal people's moments to remember).

And here is the list:

As you can see, most of the time I was happy on training improvements. And these were huge. It was not the most successful year when it comes to ribbons but I have the feeling that we really worked on profound issues and our basic training. Moving to our trainer's barn helped a lot I have to admit. Not to forget the moment Hafl recovered well from his surgery in early January. That we made it to Lipica was a great moment - too bad that the show was cancelled then. Maybe this year.

The jar is empty now. I hope to increase the number of good moments in 2016. Why not starting a jar yourself? Make sure you have a second one at hand - more on that tomorrow!