As I began last year, I received a gift from a close friend that forever altered my view on so much more than even I thought was possible.

I received a calendar. An unlikely gift, but still beautiful. The calendar itself was called, "You Are Stronger Than You Know". I didn't think anything of it and thought I might write little appointments or meetings on it, nothing else. But that is not what happened at all.

I started on January 1st, writing just one thing that I was grateful for for that day. It could've been anything from being grateful for a particular person or for waking up in the morning. No matter how bad the day was, or where I was, I always made an effort to fill in the days every single night before I went to my bed. Even on days when I didn't want to, I at least wrote in the notes in my phone and copied it the next day.

I didn't realize until just a few months ago how powerful this activity was for me. For so long, I have never reflected on anything I am grateful for. I've answered questions about 2018 with, "it was terrible" but then I look at the calendar and realize that even though it may have been bad, it wasn't all bad.

There is always at least a little good in the bad, even when it doesn't seem like it.

On really bad days when I think about bad things, I open up that calendar and think about any random date or anniversary and look at what I wrote for that date. Even on bad days, I wrote just one good thing that happened to me, and reading over months of those little things makes my heart happy for the moment.

This project had a much bigger impact than me just reading a single thing or writing a piece of gratitude every day. It reminded me that even when things are bad, there is at least a little bit of good that I can think about.

I won't lie, there were weeks and sometimes even full months near the end of this year that I wrote nothing. I didn't think about it at all. Nothing in this world is perfect, and CERTAINLY not me. So, yes, I did fail sometimes. But the important part is that through thinking about gratitude throughout the year, I now get to look through even the worst times and remember the good things that happened this year.

This is an important lesson for so many people to learn, even myself. The power of gratitude is something much bigger than just one thing every day. Gratitude itself has the power to trick your mind into thinking about the positive things in life, therefore making you appreciate life much more than you may have before. Is that not powerful?

In 2019, I hope to get a new calendar (here's the link if you're interested), and continue this. I hope to not forget that even the worst days can have traces of light.