There’s often a sense that gratitude and Monday are incompatible. There’s a whole network of memes all suggesting the same thing: there’s nothing positive about Monday. It’s built, I suppose, on the assumption that, with the weekend complete, the best part of the week is behind us, and we have little to look forward to. But that assumption is, in turn, based on another assumption: that the fun weekend is superior to the business week day, and that Monday is the worst possible of the five workdays because it’s waking up from the dream that was the weekend and returning us to the daily reality that seems to have less choice and more obligation. After all, one can choose to sleep in or to get up early on a Saturday morning; a Monday morning lacks the former and demands the latter. So what is there to be grateful for on a Monday?
I went to work, which means I have a job and can provide for my family. That’s certainly something to be grateful for. My kids are (relatively) safe at school during the day: certainly not all parents have that same assurance. I woke up in a bed and will return to it: not everyone has that simple privilege. I get to work with some amazingly sweet (though predictably chatty — middle schoolers are the same everywhere) students. The list could go on and on. We can literally find things all around us to be grateful for.
And I’m especially grateful that I don’t have to write any more. It’s not a job, not an obligation, and so I can tumble off to bed at 9:16.