#summergratitude: June 21-29 round-up

On Sunday, as I started my day, the following post by one of my friends caught my attention:

“Gratitude is the root of happiness.”

I thought this perfectly sums up our approach to #summergratitude. For both Kelly and I, summer is our favourite season.  We decided in 2011 to mark our love for summer with tweets using the hashtag #summergratitude.  This year we decided to enlargen our #summergratitude community, encouraging people to post on Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag as well as opening up a Facebook group for people to post and share the photos and moments for which they are thankful. We also agreed to separately post our favourites of each week on our blog.

I have loved looking through the tag this week…  Photos of stolen bases at kids baseball games and packed stands at Camden Yards.  And flowers!  So many flowers. So many of my favourite things about summer, from different people and perspectives, from all across the world (including comments from the southern hemisphere about how the tag would help them in the coldness of their winter!)

Here are my favourites from Week 1 of #summergratitude 2013.

Favourite Idea

Hands down this goes to Adrienne @todaysmoments, who tweeted that she is going to use the hashtag as a way to gather together her photos from the summer to make a collage or book in September.

Favourite Tweet

I loved this tweet from Andrea @AYearinTri:

“Watching bumblebees forage through the shrubs and flowers that I planted and looked after all spring.”

For me, this made me think that so much of summer is about celebrating what we cultivate all year round…

Favourite Instagram

I love the contrast of Alisa‘s photo, and with it the reminder that summer is not just sunshine and flowers, but also storms.

Favourite Twitter Photo

Definitely this beautiful morning shot from @todaysmoments, who took this before an early morning swim.

To me this is a perfect combination – an incredible sunrise and an open water swim.  Bliss.

Favourite Facebook Photo

I love the colours in this unfiltered shot. Thanks to Charlotte for sharing the vibrancy of summer!

Remember, you can join us and share #summergratitude until the start of autumn on September 21st.  Kelly and I will continue to post our favourites our your moments throughout the summer.