Today, right at this moment, I am simply grateful. Okay, I guess that probably seems a little odd. Usually one is grateful for or about something in particular. But for just this moment I don’t really want to focus on being grateful for something. I just want to experience and savor the feeling of gratitude for it’s own sake. There are a lot of less than desirable emotional states I could be in at this moment–sadness, confusion, anger, uncertainty, depression–and at some level it would be understandable for me to at least visit those states if not to actually hang out there. Things have been a little bumpier in the past several weeks than they had been say, back in August. And the outlook for the remainder of 2011 isn’t particularly rosy. BUT, I am choosing in this moment to simply be grateful.
Today I had two people follow their intuition and reach out to me. One was my sister Ruth who felt the nudge just as I was about to send her (and another family member) and email about some weighty things I had on my mind. I was just about finishing it up when the phone rang. We talked about some of my weighty issues and other larger family matters. Ah family! I am so appreciative that she responded to her intuition telling her to call and that she took the time from her hectic life to reach out to me. We might not have fully resolved much, but I felt better talking to her and hearing her thoughts on my situation. The other call was from a friend who is pulling together a group of us to create a specialized coaching program. I had become pretty inactive with the group over the past several weeks as I was preparing for interviews, traveling, etc. She was reaching out to try to reconnect me with the project and reassure me that in spite of my lack of involvement there was still an opportunity to get on board. Like my sister, she’d felt a nudge, created by my absence, to call me and see what was going on. In both cases I had the opportunity to talk through things that had been rambling around in my head and get some clarity. It reminded me yet again of the importance of having people in your life who won’t let you drift too far away and with whom you can think and talk through all kinds of issues and ideas. I am grateful to each of them for coming to find me, so to speak.
I plan to spend some more time this evening totally appreciating whatever crosses my mind. Being grateful really isn’t that hard–there are dozens of things in any given moment that I can appreciate having as part of my life. Cultivating a gratitude practice likewise involves making it a habit of being thankful for at least one thing–one thing–every day. Habitual gratitude is possible. And if that is, what other good things might be? It’s certainly worth thinking about.
