Grateful for Everything
I am pretty sure everyone knows there is a drought in California. So the last two days that beautiful white stuff has been falling from the sky into my backyard. I think it snowed continuously for 24 hours plus…and as I look out my study window this morning, it is piled up once again waiting for me and my back to start shoveling so my dogs can use the outdoors. (they are short doggies). As the snow started, I was grateful…its pretty – soft, and feathery light as it falls on your face. As I started shoveling, I became slightly less grateful…its wet snow which is fantastic for mother earth and very heavy to move. By this morning, I was grumbling and not so grateful.
There was always a tradition in our family, to share what we were grateful for, around the Thanksgiving table. I never had any trouble with this – as there was my cat, my friends, my toys and on and on. As I grew up and continued the tradition at my table, the objects changed, but they all had something in common…they were things I termed as “good”. My job, my life in San Francisco (back in the day), my latest boyfriend, a walk in golden gate park.
True gratitude is a feeling state – its an atmosphere of goodness that can pervade any place or space. Turns out it isn’t about the object of gratitude but about that state. One of my favorite teachers often says “be grateful to be grateful…to have that capacity in any situation or any circumstance to have gratitude. Victor Frankl, someone I have quoted in my blog, taught us that this is a decision that can be made in the best of times, or the worst of times. His life in the Camps, and after the camps became living proof and a living teaching.
As we countdown the next couple of weeks leading to the holiday, I am committed to being grateful for everything – for having a back that can feel its own strength, for shovels, for helpers, for the grace of moisture so needed. It turns out gratitude is something we have inside and can decide to apply.
Join me – “If the only prayer you ever utter, is Thank you – it is enough.”
