The Happy Book.

Last night I went on a crying jag. My face was puffy and swollen, my eyes were red, and my mascara was running wild.

I called my mom so that I could lament everything that was wrong with my life. But my mother wasn't having it. She told me that I had too much in my life that was good to focus on the few small things that aren't exactly as I want them to be.

At the time I was talking to her, I didn't fully appreciate it. As my dad says, "It's my unhappy, and nobody's going to take it away from me." But, the more I thought about my breakdown today, the more I realized that my mom was right. She knows exactly what she's talking about, and she's correct to tell me that I need to be more grateful for what I have.

And then I had an idea.

It spurned not only from what my mom said, but also from what Thomas S. Monson said last Sunday Morning in his talk, The Divine Gift of Gratitude.

"We can lift ourselves and others as well when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude. If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues."

So, Here's the idea. A Happy Book. I will start to carry around a journal. In this journal, I will write down everything I see that I am thankful for. I will sketch things that make me happy, and include pictures and quotes and colors and leaves and flowers and swatches. I'm very excited about my Happy Book.

I think that it will help me in the future when I'm feeling the way I was last night. I will read it and remember everything that I'm grateful for.