Lessons in Gratitude Day 325

Tonight my daughter asked me if I was going to stop writing this blog when I reach the 365th day of writing it. “I’m not sure I’m going to make it to 365,” I replied as I stared glumly at the blinking cursor on the blank screen below the title, “Lessons in Gratitude Day 325.” Only 40 more days to go…

I am grateful for what I was able to accomplish today–mundane things like housecleaning and writing invoices for work I’d done over the past two weeks. Yesterday I did laundry, changed the linens on my bed and accomplished more mundane but necessary things. At the end of this day, I find myself suffering from some measure of dissatisfaction over what I did not accomplish today. There’s a prayer I try to recite most nights (because I am still learning it, I have not memorized it. I read it from a small piece of paper I’ve it written on.) There’s a part that says,

It is a helpful reminder to me that the day is over and there are things left undone. But I cannot add hours to the end of the day to get them done now, so it is time to let go and leave them undone until I can next get to them. This has not always been easy for me; we are an accomplishment-driven society and I grew up in a somewhat accomplishment-driven family. There’s nothing whatever wrong with that; it’s how we move things forward, make progress along our paths, etc. But there comes a point when it’s alright to let go temporarily set aside the notion that this thing is going to get done on this day. As difficult as that is, I’m going to let it go. There are still a few things I can still get done before I leave the house at 10:45 p.m. to go pick up my son from work. That includes tonight’s blog.

Taking a few moments to focus on gratitude shouldn’t be that hard, and actually, it isn’t. I frequently burst into random moments of gratitude many times throughout the course of a given day. The focusing on what I’m grateful for is easy, the writing about it is not! In spite of my occasional struggle with the written expression of my gratitude, I am hopeful each night as I sit down to the computer to compose these reflections that I’ve managed enough coherent thoughts that someone benefits in the reading of them and I in the writing. It is at least part of the reason that I sit here each night ruminating over those things for which I am grateful.

So with gratefulness I will sign off and prepare myself for tomorrow. Get a few more things done and let go the rest. I am reprinting the night time prayer below.