I learned a new Italian saying today: Sono distrutto ~ I am destroyed.  

It is a very dramatic way of saying that you are, well, destroyed.  That’s how I feel right now.  Distrutto.  Not for any particular reason, just life carving away at me until I feel like I am just a shell of an Erica.  

It might be the rain.  It has been raining here for days and days.  The city is flooding and all the yards are turning into little oceans.  Normally I love the rain but this constant gloom is getting to be a bit much.  

Today feels like a day when I should be concentrating on the really good stuff in my life but even that feels like too much work.  I would much rather sit here in my big brown chair and feel sorry for myself.  And maybe eat some ice cream because you can’t have a really great pity party without ice cream, right?

All of this whining is actually reminding me of something really cool I started doing on the first day of the new year…

I read a blog post about gratitude jars (I wish I could remember where I read it so I could link it for you) and I decided to make one myself.  I cleaned out a giant pickle jar and put it on in a conspicuous place in my living room with a pen and pad of paper next to it.  Now, whenever I have something I am grateful for I just jot it down and throw it into the jar.  On New Year’s Eve this year I will spend the day revisiting all of my moments of gratitude for the year 🙂

(Don’t worry, the jar has a lot more scraps in it now, this picture is from the jar’s birthday!)

I hope everyone is having a peaceful evening, but if you are feeling distrutto try to think of at least one good thing you could put in your own gratitude jar today. 🙂