Gratitude is the memory of the heart

The first I heard of a Gratitude Journal was when Oprah Winfrey interviewed Gwyneth Paltrow, not long after she had split from Monsieur Pitt (I'm team Chris all the way, by the way).

The thing that stuck in my mind was that she was thankful for her friend's freckles. Her freckles? I thought. I wonder if anyone is thankful for my freckles? (Turns out they are)

A few years later I was surviving on £20 a week in London, newly split from my partner of 5 years, and had just been turned down for a job I really, really wanted. As I sat on the bus home to rain-drenched Fulham Broadway, I cried for a few minutes then opened up a scrappy old notebook and wrote my first gratitude journal entry: I am grateful for...warm feet. My mother had just posted me the thickest, warmest merino bed socks from New Zealand. I was secretly wearing them under my work shoes and for the first time in months my feet weren't ice cold. Such a simple pleasure, and that's the point of the gratitude journal. Once you start looking for things to be thankful for, beauty appears from all corners of your day.

I have had several gratitude journals since, and love to read through them from time to time. I have always just used a standard notebook, so when I discovered Sarah Laurie's new Lifestyle Couture stationery line I was instantly smitten with her Gratitude Journal. With its delicate butter-yellow linen cover and thick paper stock, it is a thing of beauty itself.

Last night as I sat and contemplated what my first entry would be, I spotted a tiny freckle on my daughter's squidgey, peaches and cream thigh. Turns out, I'm grateful for freckles too.

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