Editor's Note Invasion of the ‘pod people’ By Darcy L. Fargo

May 17, 2023

I think of them as my “pod people.”

While that makes them sound like characters in a bad horror movie, they’re actually very positive and endearing.
For the past few years, I’ve been trying to develop the habit of gratitude journaling. I’ll be consistent with it for a few days, then I don’t think of it for months.

A few months ago, I thought I’d try a different strategy, and I found a gratitude journaling app to download on my phone. It reminds me to log my gratitude every night. I’ve found that very helpful in cultivating the new habit.

That app offers users the option to join “random pods,” groups of strangers who can choose to share their gratitude entries with one another.

My pod is the best part of the app. It seems not every pod is as awesome. One of my pod people, sharing gratitude for the pod, said was assigned to our random pod after leaving a couple negative pods. Our pod seems to have something special.

Reading about my pod people’s gratitude improves my day. It helps me see things to be grateful for that I might not have thought of on my own. It warms my heart to know that random internet strangers I know by only their first names are growing, loving, exploring, learning, earning…, and they’re thankful to be doing so. They’re grateful for little things and big things. The majority of them frequently thank God.

Being immersed in this pocket of gratitude has helped improve my overall outlook. It’s helped me cultivate a desire to be grateful, a desire to look for things for which I can/should be grateful and a desire to look for God working in the world around me.

Now that I’m actively looking for those things, I find them in so many places. I see God working in the world all around me, and I see countless reasons to be grateful.

I now thank God for my pod.