Girlfriend-in-Chief Dawn here. My task for today (Day 3) in The Gratitude Challenge is to write a blog post about something I’m grateful for today in my life. Well, I’m finding this incredibly easy today. For the past few days I have been visiting the beach with my family. It’s fairly easy to be in a grateful state of mind when you’re away from housework, schedules, and real life. It generally takes me three or four days into vacation to truly relax (just in time to go back home). I personally never seem to schedule enough down time into my busy life, but I always feel better when I do. Vacations are great for remembering what is really important, and what isn’t. As we watched the waves crashing into the shore, my husband reminded us that no matter what happens — who wins the big game, who gets the client, what the test score is — the waves will keep crashing into this shore.

So today, I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity to slow down, get away, and recharge in a beautiful setting with people I love. I’m grateful for clean beaches, bountiful produce, chilled white wine, Frisbee, and the right people to share them with. I’m also grateful for the awareness that it’s much easier to feel gratitude when you’re not stressed out. I realize that the challenge will come later, when I’m back in my routine full-throttle, trying to remember to “take note and give thanks” throughout my day. I hope you will remind me how to do that, girlfriends, when this challenge gets harder. For now though, this is the easy one, and I’m grateful for that too.