Tonight I am grateful for mixed-up seasons. Yesterday as I was leaving work I walked out into a beautiful, sunny, 75-degree day that felt more like June than November 1. As I walked across the lawns toward my car I crunched through bright orange leaves which only a few days earlier had still been green, just beginning to show the slightest hint of yellow. Now the aromatic smell that is unique to autumn was released from the crushed dried leaves underfoot. Later that evening, I sat at this computer scrolling through my Facebook page and eating watermelon, yes, watermelon. And while it wasn’t as sweet and crisp as the ones I purchased in June and July, it was still a light and lovely snack as I ended my day.
These days I am seeing more and more things about gratitude and gratefulness and I can’t help but think it’s a good thing. I am about to participate in something called 21 Days of Gratitude–an online program that will bring messages from a variety of folks. I think I can hang with something for 21 days! So I’m going to check it out and see what inspiration I get.
It doesn’t require much, really, to be grateful. As I’ve said many times, I couldn’t throw a rock in any direction and not hit something I’m grateful for, even if it’s a simple as the electric throw blanket I’ve wrapped myself in as I write. Everywhere I look–both externally and internally–are things that cause me to be filled with gratitude. I am grateful for the wonderful array of good people in my life: from good coworkers and colleagues here and around the country, loving family and friends who keep me grounded and connected, and even the random acts of kindness from strangers or near strangers who are all around me. Internally I continue to feel shifts and changes in my thoughts, feelings, and attitudes about so many areas of life. I am learning and growing in a variety of ways and am throwing off some of the unhelpful attitudes and behaviors that keep me floundering in ineffectiveness and uncertainty. Gratitude is both the cause and the outcome of some of these shifts; by maintaining a focus on the things I am grateful for it shifts my energy and I approach things much more positively than I used to, which in turn increase my overall sense of gratefulness for everything around me.
I am looking forward to participating in the 21 days of gratitude and any other tool that allows me to continue to grow and enhance my gratitude practice. I look forward to exercising my gratitude muscles more in the weeks ahead, and of course Thanksgiving is coming, the time when many in the U.S. turn their thoughts to big turkey dinners and football, and hopefully a little bit towards gratitude. I wonder what it would be like if everyone in the country who celebrates the holiday all took a moment or two of silence to put their entire attention on the things they are truly thankful for. We could raise the collective endorphins or positive energy of the whole country, maybe even the whole world. It is definitely worth at try, I must say. For now, I’ll work on raising my own endorphins and those of everyone who reads this blog: may we all be filled with gratitude for the many blessings around us. So be it!
