Gratitude
"Offering genuine gratitude comes from a willingness to take account for all you have been given and to understand that none of it was guaranteed." - Day Schildkret.
The season of thanksgiving is here. Thanksgiving and gratitude are not the same thing. Gratitude is a feeling that you have, and if you can keep it, it becomes a way of life. It will affect your disposition, causing you to behave in a better manner and approach life's situations with a more positive outlook. "The root of joy is gratefulness... It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful." - Br. Steindl-Ras. Thanksgiving stems from being grateful, but it also encompasses the actions taken to express that gratitude. Prayers, verbally telling others, thank you notes, and presents are acts of thanksgiving. It is possible to express thanks without gratitude, but it will be hollow and without meaning, and won't have the lovely side effects that truly being grateful will give you.
"If you want to find happiness, find gratitude." - Steve Maraboli. Gratitude is a choice. It is a way of seeing that will bring you peace, healing, and great happiness. Taking on the perspective of gratitude will bring you answers to your mind that being negative will never get you. "This is about the two choices life gives every person; either you sit, sulk, and dwell on how unfair life is to you, or you could try and figure out how to make the bad situation work in your favor." - unknown.
Who or what is it that we owe gratitude to? We can be grateful for people and physical things, and we can be grateful for circumstances and experiences. The first step that gratitude for things requires is remembering. "You are never alone. The weight of solitude might press upon your heart, but know that you are surrounded by the silent presence of countless souls who have walked this path before you. Remember you are part of something grand, something eternal." - unknown.
As anti-social as you may be, you still owe a debt of gratitude to the people who came before you. The people who came before were not only your ancestors, but they also built the society you live in. They cleared the land, they built roads, bridges, and towns. They built power plants to supply the electricity necessary for our modern lifestyle, often at the cost of their own health. You are reading this post because they came up with a writing system and educated you. We would not be who we are today without them.
It is easy to criticize their decisions and believe that they could have done better, but our ingratitude will poison our feelings towards them. "When we focus on our gratitude, the tide of disappointment goes out and the tide of love rushes in." - Kristin Armstrong. This applies to all our relationships. By finding something about another to be grateful for (even if it is just that you do not want to be anything like them), you have created a space to love them.
Gratitude for your body and the experience that we call life is the happiest feeling. "It is a strange and wonderful fact to be here, walking around in a body, to have the whole world within you and a world at your fingertips outside you. It is an immense privilege, and it is incredible that humans forget the miracle of being here. Rilke said, "Being here is so much," and it is uncanny how social reality can deaden and numb us so that the mystical wonder of our lives goes totally unnoticed. We are here. We are wildly and dangerously free." - John O'Donohue.
What is it that makes us "wildly and dangerously free"? It is our ability to choose. Being grateful, especially during times of distress, does not mean that we are happy with our circumstances. It means that we have utilized our power to choose. It shows that we believe that there is a reason that we cannot explain for the way things happen, but that eventually, everything will work out in our favor.
When expressing gratitude, we often speak of the things that we have, but what happens when those things are taken away? Most sorrow is caused by loss: people, places, things, and circumstances that we seem forced to give up. Unhappiness is also caused when we compare our situation with other people's situations and feel that we've been shortchanged. Both will cause a spirit of ingratitude that can grow exponentially until it defines who you are. "The fool's life is empty of gratitude and full of fears." - Seneca. This attitude strips us of our power and renders us victims of our circumstances. But we can choose differently. Gratitude will make you fearless. "Both faith and fear demand you to believe in something you can't see. You choose." - unknown.
"In a world that focuses on the climb, gratitude is the pause that cherishes the view." - unknown. I am grateful for my family, friends, education, my body, the beauty of the world (both natural and man-made), the abundance of food, clean water, and safe shelter that I have access to. Most of all, though, I am thankful to God that I have a choice in how I want to perceive the experiences that I have in this life. May I always be grateful so that happiness and joy will follow me throughout all of my fearless days. :)
Love and Hope,
Big Sky Baby