Moving Into Gratitude

 Oftentimes, forward motion has to be deliberate. I find it to be so with gratitude, because let’s face it—not everything makes us want to say ‘thank you’ as we experience life. It is human to trip up, to fall, to feel as though the rain will never stop obscuring the healing sunshine. What’s a person to do?

For me, the answer is to find something, anything, which lifts my spirits, and express gratitude for it. I can gradually expand the parameters to include the less-obvious occurrences and experiences. There is always some aspect of that for which I can give thanks. Sometimes the good stuff is perfectly obvious, but more often, I need to pull out the metaphorical magnifying glass and seek out what the blessing is.

I’m a person who has spent far too much time in self-pity and sad frustration. That is not where to find gratitude! Not easily, anyway. What I’ve learned is that finding joy is an individual endeavor. No one can hand me my joy, or show me where to find it. I can see how others have found their own and have tried to share it, but mine is personal to me and must be discovered (or uncovered) by me.

My choices are these: fight to change the unchangeable, or find those cracks which, as Leonard Cohen said, let the light in. I choose light over darkness, even in those times when darkness is all I can see, because I know—without a doubt—the Light will finally show itself.

Today, gratitude comes easily. I will hold the memory of that to help me move into gratitude when it’s hard to find. Meanwhile, I will celebrate this day, this beautiful, marvelous day!