Cowboy Santa

I volunteered in December at Cowboy Santa!  Located near the stockyards in Fort Worth, Cowboy Santa is amazing.

In the photo below, you can see the long line of families waiting for gifts from Santa... It was shocking to see.

I helped hand out free presents to families in need.  It was heart warming to help, and yet also heart breaking to see all the families in need.  But SO thankful this volunteer establishment is helping so many kids have a great Christmas every year!!

Gratitude - an Antidepressant

I heard the other day from a doctor that gratitude is more effective than antidepressants. 

And obviously, no side effects from gratitude, lol.

But seriously, gratitude is a great thing and if we can incorporate it every single day, it can even help our depression.  Sure, if may not bring us out of the throws of a deep depression, but it's still extremely beneficial.  And not harmful, right?  So why not try it?

I also heard on Super Soul Sunday that we should not just see a flower and think, "oh, how pretty" and then continue walking past it. 

But really look at the flower and it's beauty.  Immerse yourself in the feelings of gratitude of how pretty the flower is and all it's intricacies.  Feeling and appreciating the gratitude of why it looks so beautiful and be thankful you even came across it.

For instance, nice yellow flower in the pic, right?  But look how pretty it REALLY is.  How the middle part (called a "pistil") is larger than most and notice how so many layers of petals it has.  What a beauty, right?  Otherwise, we might walk by and just think, "oh, hey, a yellow flower."

Gratitude.