Tonight after a long but productive work day I find that I am a little too exhausted to write a coherent post from scratch. So I spun the wheel and got luck with an earlier post on simple gratitude from August 2011. I find it resonates deeply with where I am tonight: grateful for the simple, basic comforts that we often take for granted. While I still fall into this state of mind, I am learning to be much more mindful of how much of a life of relative luxury I live given so many other places around the country and world.
I can start by being grateful for the basics. I have a roof over my head that’s safe and comfortable. I’ve seen so many people for whom this is simply not the case. Whether through difficult financial circumstance or due to catastrophic natural or man-made disasters,far too many people in this country do not have a safe,comfortable roof over their heads. I have food and the wherewithal to feed myself and my kids and even my dog. There are millions of Americans–including a significant and growing number of children–who don’t have enough to eat, going to bed hungry and waking the next morning hungry. I have gone to bed hungry once or twice in my life and had a day or two when I wasn’t sure when or what I was going to eat that day. But that was one or two days, a few hours here or there. Something always worked out and I was able to eat. In the 20 plus years I’ve been a mother, I’ve never worried about how I was going to feed my children. I cannot imagine being a parent and watching my children go hungry. In many parts of the world parents are watching their children starve to death. These realizations are not about making myself feel better by focusing on what others do not have. It is in part about putting some of the “challenges” I am facing into perspective.
I have moments when I am discouraged, anxious, and at times even a bit panicked about not having a job and the financial uncertainty that goes along with that. And I have no idea what the future holds at this moment. But I still wake up in the morning with some measure of belief that everything is going to be alright and draw on the inner resilience that somehow seems to be there when I need it. There are people around me who won’t let me get so discouraged that I give up. I have resources all around me that I can lean on when necessary. I am not alone in this by any means, and for that I am grateful beyond measure.
Simple gratitude. I am thankful. Sometimes I have no words that can truly articulate the depth and breadth of how grateful I am. Most mornings I wake up saying, “Thank you, God for this day.” And then I go about my business living with however the day chooses to unfold. I don’t walk around whistling a happy tune all day long, sometimes I get cranky, discouraged, and sound anything but grateful. But then the gratitude bubbles up regardless of how awful I might have been feeling and in spite of whatever might have happened during the course of the day. There it is, every day. I think it’s a seed that exists in each of us. Sometimes it sprouts and takes root in our lives and sometimes it lays dormant until something happens to wake it up. I for one am glad it’s rooted in my daily existence and as odd as it sounds (and I’ve said this before) I am grateful for gratitude.
I am grateful too that at the close of this long, good day, I am sitting here side-by-side with my daughter who is visiting for the long holiday weekend. I am looking forward to spending time with her over these next few days. I will also reconnect with my Aunt and my brother who are also visiting in the area. Simple gratitude, simple blessings of family and loved ones. May it continue to be so.
