A friend of mine from college shares “three good things” about her day, every day, as a post on Facebook. There’s little on Facebook that interests me these days, but I always stop my scrolling to read what she writes. A meeting that ran shorter than expected. A deadline met. An evening of good television and time spent with her wife. The things she celebrates are simple, small even, but it’s clear that just appreciating them impacts her day and her perspective.

I want to see my days differently and I’ve read enough about good habits for better mental health to know this is a brilliant daily practice. But, I’ve always shrugged it off as too easy and preferred to use my energy preparing for the worst. I tell myself it’s so I can troubleshoot it or protect my children from it – both of which are true, but it’s also a textbook response to trauma. So, after years of admiring my friend’s habit, I decided to try it for myself.

Last month, I used the car ride to school to get my younger son to share three good things with me, and then I’d share mine with him. He balked a bit at first (he’s not a morning person), but I told him I needed the attitude adjustment at the start of each day and he seemed to understand. It was a much better use of our 20 minutes together, previously spent irritated by traffic or the early hour. Plus, I’m keenly aware I only get one more year like this with him. Our time together is precious and so is he.

My older son struggles a bit more with this exercise, which I chalk up to autism and a discomfort with the intangible, but he humors me when I bring it up and attempts it in his own way. Both boys get huge points simply for trying.

Despite my tendency to constantly scan the horizon for the next bad thing, trying to see the good in my day is not a huge stretch for me. Upcyclers are predisposed to look for the potential in everything and parenting introduced me to the power of redirection, which is essentially all this is. My creative brain could go back and forth with you all day, listing good thing after good thing, and likely never run out of examples. Still, knowing there’s good in my life and trusting it are two different things (again, thanks, trauma), but it’s early days, so the experiment continues.

(So far,) today’s three good things:

1. I spied the first tomato in my garden.
2. I have the day off from work, so I had time to walk before it gets hot again.
3. I cranked out another blog post.