Start with Gratitude…

The one day of the year when gratitude is often expressed is upon us. We call it Thanksgiving. Traditionally it’s a day to take a moment and appreciate what you already have; the blessings you already enjoy. If you think about it, no matter what may be going on in your personal life, there are still many, many things for which you can become thankful. It’s so easy when you have a problem or have issues to magnify the issues and put too much thought towards the problem. That’s human nature. But, it also serves to rob you of the life that is happening now. And at some point, you have to decide to just let that stuff go. I would surmise a guess that most if not all of our deeper intractable problems aren’t really getting solved by investing in overthinking. Instead it becomes a hook to which you find yourself entangled. Often the solution is nothing more than deciding to stop the hard work of problem solving and instead be grateful for the life you already enjoy. Stop for a moment and think about how you get to live. The comforts and familiarity you almost take for granted. Your family, the people who love you the most but often show it the least. Not because they don’t love you, but because you have become all too familiar to them, leading to not always thinking in terms of your self interest. They have stories they tell themselves, most of which likely aren’t true, and sometimes those stories feature you in some capacity. Spending time setting them all straight just strengthens the disconnect. Instead why not be thankful for them? They, like you, are carrying around their own baggage. You don’t need to fix them. Instead just let them be without judgment. Appreciate them for who they are and for sharing your experience of life. This life is much simpler than we have imagined. But, we complicate it with our own expectations and standards. Instead of adding, evaluating and always judging, always comparing, we would be better served to let it all go. The real help for our problems comes when we return to gratitude. Start with gratitude.

Every time you rant and rave about your needs not being met, you are actually causing more and more of your needs to be unmet. You are hanging out in the wrong place. You stopped too long at the light. Your are looking for your needs to be met while you are in the darkness where there is no light. You are dwelling on and embracing the illusion that you somehow might get missed. And you do get missed because you weren’t looking in the right place. You were searching for something to give you what you already have. Yes, you already have everything you need, at least for today. Gratitude for what you already have leads to more of what you you would like to have. Conversely, lamenting about what you don’t have leads to having less and less and less. Oh, the irony. Somehow, someway you have to get back to gratitude. Turn the lights back on. Get out of that dark place where your life is being strangled away from you and turn the light back on. Often I think our lack of gratitude comes from taking things for granted. We get the blessings we sought after and then once used to them, take them for granted. Gratitude is about not taking things for granted. It is paying close attention to the here and now, the only place you can affect, you can experience and you can enjoy. Look around you. There is an entire world of variety and wonder and new learning. So, so much if you are not asleep. You are asleep to it when your days all blend together, when nothing seems to be happening, when you feel bored and restless and tired. The life you seek is still there, but in your lethargy you missed it. A mind filled, preoccupied with worry, with what is wrong or could go wrong, with problems to solve and issues to straighten out, with unmet needs lingering, becomes numb to the realities of life. It is bathing every day in the darkness and then wondering why you still don’t feel good. Your subject of focus is wrong. It is not life, it is corrupted life. It is life that is being greatly hindered by something entirely unseen. Something outside of you adept at stealing. And, please trust me on this one, your life is not long enough to figure it all out. It’s complicated and complicating. It is an invitation to an unsolvable riddle inviting you to spend some time. It’s an itch you cannot scratch. It is a colossal, gigantic, illusory and cunning waste of your time and thought life. Don’t look for another set of keys or principles. Express your gratitude for what is and will be. Thank Him that gave it all to you. Start with gratitude.

Don’t sleep on gratitude. It’s not trite or an exercise to employ. It is not a condition to fulfill to get to another thing. It is a heartfelt appreciation for all that this is and can be. How many miracles and so-called coincidences had to line up perfectly to bring you about? Where you live. Whom you see the most; your circle as it were. They aren’t just floating in an orbit happening to pass by at times. then intersecting somehow. No, they are all part of an unfathomable, carefully and detailed plan designed with you in mind. Not the collective you. You. As in, for you. Then, even more incredulously, providing the same for all the others according to their hopes and dreams. You see, once you can finally perceive that you aren’t just randomly existing in a random set of circumstances randomly interacting with other people, then you start to understand the need for your gratitude. You are part of something wonderful which seeks expression in you. You were never meant to live this thing alone, absent the Designer. Your gratitude ever points to the Designer. So take a few private moments this week with your heart and His heart to talk about what you are grateful for, my friends. Think how lucky you are; how blessed. Then carry that gratitude with you for every day and before long you will know to start there. Start with gratitude…

Just some good thoughts…