Lizard Lamps and Gratitude Lists

Daylight Savings Time is over, and we are officially back in Standard Time. We have entered the time of year where days feel like they are 76 hours long and it is dark by 3 p.m. I guess even the sun needs its beauty rest. In the Schroeder household, the time change also means the return of the Lizard Lamp. Don’t worry, there’s no secretly-kept pet amphibian wandering around—we are strictly a two-cat household. My Lizard Lamp is actually called a sunlight therapy lamp, and it’s because I have the aptly-acronymed SAD: Seasonal Affective Disorder. When the sun goes into hiding, I get . . . well, sad. Maybe you are also familiar with the wintertime blues? 

It turns out the sun can make a really big difference in a person’s mood. One way SAD is treated is with a sunlight therapy lamp: a small, very bright lamp that helps mimic sunlight. For the foreseeable future, you can find me sitting under my sunlight therapy lamp for 30 to 60 minutes each day, pretending to enjoy the glow of artificial sunlight, just like a lizard in a habitat. The Lizard Lamp isn’t the only thing I use to help treat SAD, though. I use it in combination with several other tools. One of my favorite tools is something we already talk about quite a bit this time of year: gratitude. November means Thanksgiving, and while Thanksgiving means several trips to Kroger and pushing ovens (and fridges) to their limits, it is also a reminder to pause and be grateful. 

Gratitude is something my parents tried to instill in my sister and I from an early age. My mom’s favorite Bible verse is Psalm 118:24: “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” It’s the first verse I ever memorized, but I learned quickly that this kind of gratitude can be hard. The time changes and the sun disappears, or you get a call with bad news, or someone you encounter is unkind, and it can be hard to see something to rejoice about. But here’s the funny thing about gratitude—the more we practice it, the easier it becomes. When we get in the habit of looking around and thanking God for the good things in our lives, we start to notice more and more things we are grateful for. When we practice gratitude enough, gratefulness becomes the filter through which we see our lives. 

During the Season of Abundance, we have practiced moments of gratitude each week on our social media pages. While the Season of Abundance might end this Sunday, our gratitude practices don’t have to. If you’re struggling to practice gratitude, start with naming three things each day that you are grateful for. Today, I’m grateful for time spent on a new craft project, the friends I’ve made at seminary who are scattered all across the country, and of course, my Lizard Lamp. What about you?