I'm wearing the new hat Rachel made for me for Christmas, along with a very warm coat I bought myself more than a decade ago.
That's a good thing, too, because it's snowing today.
As I drove to the station today, my car's brakes slipped once in the snow, and I had to gently tap them to come to a stop at an intersection.
I made it to the station in time to catch the train without having to run for it.
The wind was cold, and the sky dim and bleak. A long distance train came rushing down the tracks, blowing enormous clouds of windswept snow along in its wake.
I was glad for my coat, glad for my hat, glad I had arrived there safe, glad I was going to make the train.
All that gratitude made me happy.
That's the funny thing about gratitude. I used to think you felt gratitude when you were happy. But it's actually the other way around.
There's actually research that this is so. Brother David Steindl-rast, a Swiss Benedictine monk and interfaith scholar is part of a project doing that research.
I'm grateful I know about the research, and what it means to me, personally. It keeps me as warm inside as this coat and hat do, outside.