Gratefulness, Are We There Yet?
23 November 2018
Gratefulness, Are We There Yet?
The counter is reset. Day one is already on the move and only three hundred sixty-four wake ups and once again the grocery store parking lots will be full, and the aisles will be filled with the not so cheerful faces scurrying down the aisles for the last cans of cranberry sauce, fried onion rings and the infamous brown and serve rolls.
Cashiers and store clerks constantly checking their smart phones to see if the second hand is any closer to closing time. I mean after all it is, “Thanksgiving Day”, and although no one is really emanating or expressing their gratefulness for all those who battled their way through three snoozes but yet eventually crawled their way to the john, slammed down a cup of joe and then reported promptly to their battle stations to cheerfully greet all those that swore that this year they would not wait till the last minute to procure their arsenal of goodies for this day of feast!
But etched in their memory is that this grocery chain was not open on, “el dia de dar gracias” when they were kids. All the sudden the dots connect and with a shift in their countenance, they realize that it’s because of these non-pre-crastinators pushing four wheeled metal containers that they are standing on a 3x5 anti stress mat to begin with. They no longer look like your average shopper. Now they have morphed donning helmets, numbered striped shirts to match their particular bumper car. More and more resembling characters straight out of a “Mad Max”, movie! Suddenly, the door that leads to thankfulness is not quite as ajar, and mixed emotions seep in with a smidgen of light confusion.
Truth be known it is my belief that we humans are not your most grateful lot. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to surmise that even referring to it as a malady in our day would not be considered a misnomer. I could pen pages of examples, but I know that it isn’t necessary because as you were reading you were most likely already conjuring up images of those, including yourself, of times, even today perhaps, where the opposite of thankfulness was displayed.
By the way this is not an invitation to start flogging yourself or going to deep into the rabbit hole in deep introspection to the point of not even seeing the exit signs. The intent is not to pitch a guilt tent and campout or swim in a sea of apathy, but to ever so gently draw our attention to the fact that we don’t have to wait 8760 hours to get into a lotus position to draw upon and ruminate on what were thankful for. The real question I ask as of late is, “why would I want to wait that long in the first place”?
In the last few months I have experienced quite an awakening and where once I traveled across terra incognita, is now a beautiful landscape, a place that I feel connected to and familiar with but often very quickly becomes a mirage. I seem to have worked through the shale and discovered a crevice in my heart that knows thankfulness, that really appreciates and is grateful for the good bad and even ugly of life. A place where photo albums are stored containing countless, priceless digital images that are transformed into moving pictures reminding me of how much I have to truly be thankful for.
Science has proven that there are significant health benefits when we choose to exchange self-pity for gratitude and that’s only one of many serendipities that reward our brains, soul, body and spirit. Click on the link below if you would like to see for yourself some of the other sweet benefits.
I will take advantage now and say thank you, to you, for taking time to read my blog. As I typed these words I immediately felt them leave the page and pass through the sedimentary rock and find their home in the grateful files I mentioned earlier. But now that I have the key to the door I will visit more frequently and spend some time marinating in the spirit of thankfulness. Thanks be to the One who created this great beautiful mystery that makes our journey even that much more rewarding.
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