What a difference a day makes. Yesterday I was a bit out of sorts and out of step with what I wanted to be doing. Today was as productive and energetic as yesterday was sluggish. That is why I try to be patient with myself on those days when I struggle energetically. I know that if I keep moving, take steps forward in a positive direction, and continue to encourage myself, sooner or later I’ll feel better and can get back into a rhythm. I appreciated having regained the energy and enthusiasm to have a very good today. I don’t take these days for granted; when I have them I can work nonstop and barely break a sweat. That is how this day unfolded and I am grateful. I still have a few things I’d like to accomplish before I retire for the evening, but if I don’t accomplish a single additional thing, it’s all good.
Today begins the 48th week of the year; only four weeks to go and 2012 is in the books. Another year past. I can recall several months ago saying, “I’ll be glad when 2012 is behind me.” (I believe I said the same thing about 2011.) And I suppose at one level I will be glad–2012 was a difficult year piled on top of an even more difficult year. But as I think on it now, I might now say some different things about 2012 and what I learned from what I’d gone through in 2011; that 2012 has been a time of healing and recovery (though in the middle of the year I wouldn’t have been so sure about that.) Healing is a process that is not finished at this moment, but I am definitely better, stronger than I was at the beginning of the year. I still have my share of challenges–we all do, we likely always will in some form or another–but I am learning to manage them better. Or perhaps what I am learning is to manage myself better in the midst of everything.
Gratitude has been one of the more powerful healing tonics I’ve taken over the past year or so. It has been my ability to search for and discover the many things in my life to be grateful for that has kept me moving when I would have faltered and given up. The love of family and friends was another powerful instrument of healing in my life over the past two years in particular. I wouldn’t trade that for anything.
I have not yet sat down to outline for myself how I would like for 2013 to unfold; after all I still have four weeks of 2012 to complete. I will spend some time contemplating the coming year in the days and weeks ahead. What are my hopes for myself? Where do I want to be, what do I want to be doing, and with whom? Where do I want to invest my time and energy in the year ahead? In addition to my paid work, what is my heart yearning to do, what is my spirit calling me to do? How can I find the place where my “deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet?” Those are just a few of the questions I’d like to ponder as I consider the year ahead. Just a few of them…
I am grateful on this 500th day of posting Lessons in Gratitude that I still have something to say after this long period of time. I pray I will still have worthwhile ideas to share when I hit day 1000, should I still be writing this at that point. What I can say is that whether I post a blog every day, I will continue finding and expressing gratitude for the blessings in my life and will communicate that in whatever avenues are open to me. I hope you’ll continue to be with me on this journey. May each of us know happiness and the root of happiness. So be it!
