Lessons in Gratitude Day 123

Tonight I am grateful for the love and support of family and friends. I am back in the Eastern time zone for a little more than 24 hours–I arrived here at around 3 p.m. CA time today (October 30) and I will be back on the West Coast by 7 p.m. In between then, I am giving a presentation and interviewing for a job. I am grateful for all of the text messages, e-mails, phone calls, and tweets from family and friends letting me know that they are praying for me that all goes well. I can’t adequately describe the feeling that such love invokes,but I can give you a metaphorical example.

A few years ago I participated in a leadership development program with a group of 20 people. We spent many intensive days together over the course of the 10 month program. Early in one of the first sessions, we participated in an outward bound type of experience. One of the exercises was a “trust fall” in which you fall straight backwards off of a log (maybe five feet or so in the air) into the waiting arms of a group of about 10 people. For someone who is afraid of heights like I am it really takes a lot to fall blindly for what feels way higher than a few feet and hope that you don’t go splat on the ground below. Instead you are gently caught by these 20 arms that hold you from head to toes–your whole body is cradled and you are suspended in those arms with 10 sets of eyes lovingly looking down and smiling at you. It was a very sacred feeling both to be held–and we here held and rocked for a few moments before we were gently set on our feet–and to be one of the 10 responsible for catching. Even the biggest of our participants–we had some men well over six feet tall and who knows how much they weighed–were caught effortlessly by the group and held and rocked. Many of us, both fallers and holders, had tears in our eyes. It is amazing the connections that are built when you fully trust that when you fall, someone will be there to catch you.

That is the feeling I have this evening as I prepare to go through this process tomorrow morning–I have angels in my life who have interlocked their hands and arms and have said, “Fall back, we are here, we love you, we are praying for you, we are supporting you.” And so I am falling back into that loving support. I’m leaning into the knowledge that they are there for me, that they have my back and that when I go into the events tomorrow, their love will carry me. It is a wonderfully humbling thing to have that network of support. I am grateful beyond measure. I know that I have likewise been a set of arms for someone else, have prayed and stood in support of others; it is a much different experience being the one being caught and held. I plan to revel in it for a bit, even as I rested in my friends’ arms after I’d fallen, and bask in that love. Then I will gently get to my feet and prepare to take my place as a catcher. And I will be grateful.

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