I am grateful tonight for every one of us who has struggled with something, who have fallen down, and battered and bruised, scraped and bleeding, scrambled to get back up, wobbly at first but gradually regaining strength and stability. Whether literally or figuratively, we have all been knocked down by something and by some grace, some miracle, a hand reaching out to us, or our own inner fortitude, we find what we need to get back to our feet and back into the flow of life. I am grateful for all that I have been able to draw upon that helps me climb back on my feet and gets me back in the race: family, friends, the kindness of strangers, serendipity, the grace of God, my own strength and perseverance. These are things that in one way or another are available and accessible to all of us.
I have been blessed with wonderful family and friends; I’ve written about them many times, recounting the many, many (many) ways that they’ve lifted, held, supported me. And yet at times it can be a smile and passing words from a stranger that is just what I need to hear, a message on a billboard, a lyric to a song that happens to come on the radio that also have remarkable power to uplift. At one point in my life when I was feeling really low about something, one of my sisters said to me, “There are signs everywhere; you just have to look for them.” “Yeah, sure,” I grumbled, not at all convinced that God was speaking to me, sending me signs. I used to complain that they were so obscure that I never seemed to find them. But she was right, there really are signs everywhere; what was often lacking was my capacity to see and appreciate what was right in front of me.
During some really challenging days I was somehow struck with the idea that I needed to express gratitude on a daily basis, in meaningful ways. That is when I started writing this blog. It started out as simply a good idea that Oprah and so many self-help gurus, positive psychologists, and countless others have recommended: make a list every day of 10 things you are grateful for. Of course as one who is gifted in making something more work than is called for, I decided to write in detail about what I was grateful for and why. (I explained this on Day One of Lessons in Gratitude.) This simple exercise became in essence an anchor that kept me grounded when the various storms and dramas of life would have blown me away.
The strength of will that was required to write every day, no matter how I was feeling allowed me to develop muscles I didn’t knew I had. Every time I “exercised” gratitude, I strengthened my ability to persist, persevere, and withstand the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune that life seemed to be hurling at me. By choosing to focus on my blessings, on the things for which I was grateful, it diverted energy away from focusing on everything that was difficult, challenging, going “wrong.” And I began to see more that was right in my world than what was wrong. Though I still cried, was puzzled and frustrated, and had moments of depression, sadness, and anxiety, there came a point when those days were fewer and the days when I felt peaceful, calmer, and more patient with myself grew. And while I have by no means arrived, and still have much to learn and many more lessons in gratitude to gain and then offer to others, I have come a long distance on my journey. You have come right along with me, fellow companions on the path. For your company and your participation with me in this grand experiment in gratitude, I am most definitely and exceedingly grateful.
