Revisiting Grateful

Beautiful parking lot roses at the local grocery store…taken with my phone camera.

I know I’ve written many times about how important the practice of gratitude has been for me but I’ve recently been having a lot of light bulb moments and one of them has been about gratitude and what it's really all about. (I feel so excited about gratitude that I want to shout it out in caps but I’ll refrain!  I’ll just use lots of exclamation points and italics…lol)

In the past, I’ve understood gratitude from the perspective of appreciating the positives in my life; the things that make me happy…almost as though by counting up the positives, I cancelled out the negatives.  If I focused enough on what was positive, then I wouldn’t obsess think about the negative.  And that’s true…to a point.

I’ve recently begun to understand that feeling gratitude includes being grateful for everything….everything…even those things that are unpleasant and not what I want in my life. 

My life is my creation and it’s all here “for” me (rather than being done to me) and with my awareness of this, everything is leading me to where I want to be.  Every aha, every understanding, shifts me…either slightly or profoundly…with a new course direction. If I can be grateful for it all, there’s no resistance…and we’ve probably all heard that “what we resist, persists”. 

These thoughts have been swirling around in my head for the past several weeks, and I love how the universe lets me know I’m on the right track…

• Yesterday I listened to an interview with Lilou Mace (of Lilou’s Juicy Living Tour) where she said exactly the same thing.  At a time in her life when she was out of work and her fridge was empty, she learned to be truly grateful for her empty fridge.  She found out then, who she really was at her core and what was important to her. 

• Today when I checked in at Roxanne’s blog In the Transition (you might know her from her Vlog Beach Walks With Rox) I found more of the same in her most recent post…Grateful for everything....yes, everything.

My understanding of gratitude; what it really means and what it requires of me, has shifted profoundly and in that shifting, my life is also shifting...away from the good/bad, better/worse, right/wrong mindset to appreciating and loving all of it. 

Of course, the moment I think I’ve finally “got” something, I’m immediately tested with all kinds of buttons being pushed and yes, there are times when I simply forget all of this and “react”, but…as soon as we’re aware of something, it’s easier to pull back and remember there’s another way. 

It’s a new paradigm…and it’s our choice.  The rewards for choosing gratitude-for-all-of-it, are pretty amazing.

 

All that we behold is full of blessings. 

William Wordsworth

 

(we’ve been away this week with our oldest grandson…who at nine has brought us up to date with Angry Birds and electronic gaming…who knew that the Nintendo ds has a built in camera with the capability of manipulating photos!  We’ve been visiting my dad (and grandson’s great-grandpa) and heading back to the coast tomorrow.  Thanks to everyone who stops by…I am truly grateful for you all…blowing kisses!) 

Comments

[Chris]

Hi Kate, I never thought of being grateful for the negative things in life. But it makes sense. I will now rethink my definition of grateful. As Michelangelo once said, "Ancora imparo," (I think I spelled that correctly!) which means "I am still learning." And isn't that what life's all about?

[Chris]

Hi Kate, it's me again. I forgot to add in my last comment that the photo of the roses taken with your camera phone is beautiful. Phones sure have come a long way haven't they?

[lauren]

I'll get there . . . one of these days! Hope you enjoy your wkend

[Olivia]

I so agree with you about gratitude, kate. I read a really good book about this very thing about 6 months ago called "Make Miracles in Forty Days: Turning What You Have into What You Want" by Melody Beattie, where she describes how she turned her life around by having a conscious practice of such gratitude for 40 days. You start out every day by writing what you have in your life and turn everything around so that you actually ARE grateful for the gifts in the "negative" things. It enables you to start the day out with an open, receptive orientation.

Interestingly, I am just starting what people have said is a fantastic book called "The Gift of Our Compulsions: A Revolutionary Approach to Self-Acceptance and Healing". I read this five years ago, and I'm thinking must not have been ready for it yet. I remembered it as a "good" book, but that was all, and then I gave it away, which I often do...but it astounded me that I have no memory of it other than that it was good. So I re-bought it and am now going to see what I hope I am ready for. I want to see the gift not just in my compulsions, but in every moment of living.

I'm glad we're friends, kate! xoO

[Stephanie]

I am amazed how often I am drawn here for a visit and find words that feed what is on my mind. I keep a copy of Dawn Light by Diane Ackerman by my bed and read and re-read it. Last night I read the essay called Nothing Doing. She speaks of not fretting over lost possibilities, that real peace comes from loving one's fate, not just accepting it...life is what it is and how we respond is what leads to happiness or discontent...in other words being grateful for ALL of it!

peace to you!
x...x
steph

[Serena]

This post is just what I needed to read today after finding out some negative news yesterday. Thanks, Kate! As always, you have reached out across the pond and touched my soul with your messages.

Those roses are SO pretty! I am grateful to you for sharing their beauty with us.

Love, light and peace to you,
Serena xo

[jaime]

Loving all of it. That is profound.
Because it's true...we look at gratitude in terms of the good things that come into our lives to help overcome the bad...rather than embracing the so-called bad, and looking for its lessons/messages.
You have created a shift in my thoughts today. As I said before, such wisdom comes from you!