while their American friends have begun
making their way to gather with family for Thanksgiving.
Though we find ourselves in Thailand this year
I cannot deny the value of pausing to reflect on what I am grateful for.
Yesterday I read an article about how gratitude is related to mental health
Studies show that gratitude can actually help with anxiety and depression!
Wow, that's good news...
especially for someone who knows what anxiety and depression can feel like!
So it must be good for me (all of us) to practice gratitude.
Admittedly I am a person who notices the cup half empty.
It takes real intentionality for me to pause and be thankful...
not a flippant kind of thankful, but a deep sense of gratitude.
So how does one begin this practice of gratitude?
And how can I be grateful when there are things I am simply not happy about in my life?
And how can I be grateful when there are things I am simply not happy about in my life?
Say...health issues. How do I choose gratitude instead of discouragement when health issues continue?
Or how about my friend who is reminded of her son's abrupt death over the Thanksgiving holiday...how does she practice gratitude in the midst of holding this grief?
And then there's the world and local news...just one minute of reading/watching news, and that can leave gratitude feeling awkward and half-hearted.
How can I choose gratitude when there are so many problems in our world?
and yet...
how can I afford not to choose gratitude?
without it I find myself downcast
lost
discouraged
Sure, on a day when the world seems bright and sunny
Gratitude feels natural
easy
smooth
But it's in the very midst of the darkness
or the struggle
that gratitude stops me in my tracks
makes me turn 180
reminding me of something bigger
One greater than myself
what I see is small
microscopic
finite
short-sighted
What if gratitude connects me to the bigger story
the bigger picture
a reminder that I belong to this bigger story
and I can find myself comforted that all shall be well
not today, maybe
not even tomorrow
but there is more than the darkness that catches my attention
Can I see the candle flickering
drawing me towards the light?
inviting me to lift my eyes up
and thus my heart lifts up as well
Can I dare to give thanks
even if at first it feels unnatural
even if at first it feels like sacrifice
but slowly
surely
gratitude begins to flow
and like healing balm
I find myself lost ...if even for a moment...
in something that feels like joy.
my husband helps me notice beauty, I'm grateful for him! :-)
