Writing this blog has been a very interesting experience. I continue to be surprised and often gratified by a number and variety of unexpected occurrences and outcomes that have resulted from my daily musings about gratitude, thankfulness, and related subject matter. The first surprise is who is reading it at any given time. I haven’t done any marketing of this blog per se, I simply post it on my Facebook page and my various “friends” have access to reading it and can share it on their network of friends if they are so inclined. I also know people who have gotten here from my website or other non-Facebook means. This too surprises me because it requires additional effort to do this.
I am grateful to those of you who read this blog and offer comment either here (rarely) or on Facebook (more common.) Sometimes on a night when I feel like I am struggling to figure out how to say something meaningful and relevant about gratitude, I’ll get a comment from someone who appreciates what I said in that post. So even when I don’t quite feel like the words are flowing, people are nonetheless benefiting from what I’ve written. That is after all why most writers write: because we have something we want to share with others and hope our words have an impact on the readers. I periodically hear from people whom I had no idea were reading this, but they felt compelled to write a brief comment about something they’d read on a particular evening.
I am also learning, that I need to be mindful and careful about what I write on any given day. Periodically, a friend or family member will call me to make sure I am alright. “I read your blog last night and you didn’t sound quite right, so I thought I’d better check in with you and see how you’re doing.” It is both a blessing and a challenge that such a variety of people are reading it. Much of what I’ve written over the past year and a half is deeply personal and reveals more about who I am than might be comfortable depending on who is reading it: coworkers, family members, etc. And while I don’t necessarily censor what I write, I am thoughtful about the impressions that what I write might leave with different groups of people. It’s simply an awareness that I have about the power of words.
Tonight is a good one for simple gratitude–those blessings that are every day parts of life. I was reminded again how very fortunate I am to be of strong, relatively healthy and abled body and a clear, relatively sound mental state. Every morning I wake up and swing whole, healthy legs to the floor, stand up and walk into the bathroom. I have full use of my senses, which for the most part work like they’re supposed to. I am grateful for the mental capacity I have for clear thinking, sound reasoning and good judgment. The ability to move freely without difficulty or pain is a simple blessing for which I am exceedingly grateful.
A big moon hangs outside my bedroom window this evening–full and bright and doing a dance with the planet Jupiter, hanging just to the north and west of it. It was an awesome sight, rising just as I was driving home from work tonight. I have always been captivated by the moon and the stars and their movement throughout the seasons of the year and the hours of a given night. The beauty of the cosmos and of the natural world is a gift for which I am deeply thankful, and the ability to see and experience the wonder of it is likewise a blessing. The power that it has to spark the imagination and the spirit filling beauty and awesome mystery of the Universe is wondrous and takes me once again back to the song written a few thousand years ago: “When I consider the heavens, the moon and stars you have created, I ask ‘who are humans that you take notice of and care about us?'”
I am grateful for another evening to reflect back on in gratitude and look ahead to tomorrow, a new day with new possibilities.
