Lessons in Gratitude Day 699

Sometimes I have no idea how to gather the threads of these disparate thoughts and somehow weave them together into coherent speech. It has been another long day and while I would love to express gratitude for all that I accomplished today (and god knows I have a lot on my plate that I need to get done), I cannot celebrate my achievements because there weren’t very many, at least not on any of the projects I’ve undertaken. This takes me back to the nighttime prayer when it says, “What has been done has been done; what has not been done has not been done. Let it be.” And so I will let it be. It is a useless expenditure of energy to lament what I did not get done, and so I won’t. Tomorrow, as Scarlett O’Hara wisely stated, is another day. I will have another shot at accomplishing the things at the top of my to-do list.

I am grateful tonight for having an already established body of work from which I can draw inspiration and excerpts from. In my ongoing exhaustion I have had to spin the wheel and select from past blogs. This evening I am drawing from Day 261 from March 31, 2012. I was grateful that evening for simple things, as I often am these days. So I want to share a few of those things because they resonate still with where I am at the moment.

• I am grateful for some financial help I received in the mail today. I have an angel who has helped me over the past several months. Without her assistance,things would be incredibly tight and I would be unable to meet some of my obligations. I look forward to the time that’s coming soon when I will be earning income from meaningful work and can begin to return her generosity back in some way to her as well as paying it forward by helping someone else. I look forward to being able to stand on my own two financial feet. Until that manifests,I am grateful for her willingness to help me.
• I am grateful for the wealth that I do possess. True wealth is much more than possessing financial means. I might have some financial struggles that keep me awake at night sometimes,but the truth is I am incredibly blessed simply to be able to do that things I’ve been able to do with relatively limited means. I am fortunate to have spiritual wealth even if I don’t currently have much in the way of financial wealth. I have family and friends whom I love and who love me. These are riches as much as anything else.
• I am grateful for the strength and perseverance that runs through my blood from my family and ancestors before me. I come from strong roots. We know how to stand strong in the face of challenges,but also to reach out for support when we can’t do it alone.

Today I heard myself counseling a young friend not to make a decision about her future employment on money alone. She works full time but is struggling to make ends meet. She interviewed for a job a few days ago and she was telling me how it went. The job wasn’t really a good fit but it would likely pay her more and she’d be living in an area where the cost of living was much more reasonable than it was where she currently lived. So even though one problem would be improved (financial struggles) another set of problems would be created: she’d be miserable in her work life. I’ve seen many people make a similar decision strictly based on financial considerations and even though they’ve made reasonably good livings the toll the stress has taken on them has cost them a lot more in the long run.

So as I look back at my post from March of 2012 I am grateful to be working and able to meet most of my obligations most of the time and every once in a while I “splurge” and buy a little something for myself. As best I can I make decisions that align with how I try to live my life and how I hope to be. As tempting as it might be to make decisions based primarily on financial considerations, in the end I have to do what’s best for my overall wellbeing.  Tonight I will close with the night time prayer from the New Zealand Prayer Book: