“If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough.”
―Meister Eckhart
I woke up this morning to snow flurries dusting my hometown, Scranton, Pennsylvania, feeling grateful. Feeling grateful for feeling grateful. Gratitude is not my natural state.
I am a naturally glass-half-empty person. In every situation, my eyes and my mind default to criticism, latching on to judgment of what I consider to be wrong. I’m especially brutal when assessing myself. It has taken me decades to realize this strategy does not work.
Simple steps are leading me to a new practice of being grateful for what is, without judgment. I live surrounded by lovely, loving people. I live with the cutest dog in the world. I’m healthy. I have a roof over my head and plenty of food in my kitchen. I am blessed.
Even as I write this, my mind wants to complain, yes, all that’s true, but… I want to point out all the things that are “wrong” with my life. Today, the day after Thanksgiving, I’m resisting that urge. I know that whatever I focus on grows. Continuing to focus on my gratitude will always increase reasons to feel grateful.
I’m not a big holiday person, but I do like a day of Thanksgiving that reminds me to be grateful. I like to thank the millions of people who have gone before me and created all the things that I take for granted: water supply, hot water, furnaces, houses, policemen, firemen, libraries, refrigerators, grocery stores, automobiles, computers, TV, the Internet….Well, you get the idea. I could make an almost endless list of people to thank and things to be grateful for. It’s truly an amazing world full of wonderful things.
Not to mention the guys who were just banging around outside my house to fill my oil tank. THANK YOU!
Beautiful, Lynn. Thank you and Thank God for you. I love the pix of the doggie loves!!!