My Attitude to Gratitude: This is what it looks like for me…

From my window, gratitude looks like a piece of bright blue sky, a day full of golden sunshine and a picnic lunch, a plate of buttered toast with real fruit preserve. An hour’s worth of exercise with blood rushing through my veins and oxygen through my lungs, a good book savored sans interruptions, half-a-cup of delicious coffee – strong with just a hint of sugar. My husband coming home after a day of flying.

Gratitude for me is about a day full of peace and joy. A holiday spent with my husband and son, a walk with my dog, a bowl of soup relished in a pool of lamp light. Gratitude is cooking a nourishing meal for my family, watching a movie at home, a snuggle and a cuddle, kind words and laughter.

12 unexpected (and a few expected) facts about working-from-home

photo credit: Paul Shirey

I’ve been working-from-home for over eight years now, trying out new roles, practicing my craft. In these years, I’ve been an employee and an editor, a content writer and a freelance journalist, an entrepreneur and a Holistic Health Coach, a blogger and a writer mama. I’ve done a ton of writing, and then some.

I’ve followed home cheques and lost some. I’ve worked with magazine editors and company owners, and created projects on my own. I’ve set up my home office in corners of bedrooms and dining tables, and when lucky, in entire studio rooms. I’ve worked through days, when working-from-home seemed almost impossible. I’ve worked through failed Internet connections and major power cuts. I’ve always met my deadlines and hardly ever my editors. I’ve dabbled in health coaching and now, in blogging.

I’m always on crossroads because I’m a work-at-home professional adapting my goals and to-do’s to my life situations.

So, here’s my dirty dozen on the things you may not expect working-at-home to be.

How I'm letting go of assumptions

How much time does it take to slap on an assumption about what someone said or did? A minute or less, right?

I’ve done it sometimes, and I bet, you must have too. At least, at some point in your life, on a bad day or good, while at work or at a party, while listening to someone speak or while people watching at the airport, while talking to other mothers or munching popcorn with a bunch of pals.

This is what the past month has been like...

It’s been long. And this is what a month of work and play has led to.

The house has been turned into a home. Life and color and warmth infused into every corner of this sprawling place. The lawn’s been laid out with new grass. The pots are waiting for seeds.

Our picnic blanket’s always ready for an impromptu loll on the lawn. Our dog, Muffin, isn’t sure whether she should be happy or scared of the rambunctious baby, who is always tumbling over her. “Pat, don’t pull” is a chant that rings out through the house every other minute.