No one likes to be reminded that suffering is a part of our world. When it comes, it often feels like it will swallow us alive. These times do bring us qualities that give us new focus, strength we never knew we had, and the priorities in life that move us further on our journey forward. It never arrives quite how we think, but it always arrives.
Gratitude, true gratitude, has a way of pulling us back into what is going ‘right’ in our lives. There is so much there that we don’t always see. I choose to focus there. It’s not that the other stuff doesn’t matter, because it does. Oh, yes it does. Gratitude has a way to soften us, to bring compassion to our hearts. It brings an ability to imagine what it might be like to walk in someone else’s shoes, as well as the stability to walk in our own.
Gratitude is an act of reflection. Looking back and noticing how we jumped the hurdles. Some really high ones. For most of us, this year has brought change that is leaving us in a place of never being the same again, just in uniquely different ways.
Today, I am grateful for the people in my life. Those who are doing the best that they can on a minute by minute basis. Those who are seeing life differently today than yesterday. Those who keep on going, giving me the strength to keep on going.
Today, I am sending out more love than I did last year or the year before. Like a wringing of a washcloth I am wringing out what no longer serves for the greater good. Selfishness, impatience, the need to be right can step aside as I make room for the good stuff to be acknowledged and appreciated. The stuff that really matters.
As today unfolds, it may not be like the Thanksgiving’s of the past, but I choose to be grateful. Grateful for another breath, a warm meal and one more day.
Happy Thanksgiving 💖
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