Thursday, November 23, 2017

Thanksgiving Thoughts


On this day of Thanksgiving
in this month where we list what we are thankful for
I'd like to implore you to practice gratitude daily if you don't already.
Every day of the year, even - no, especially - on days that suck, days where nothing is going your way, days you think you will not survive. Find a plain rock on a turd beach and be thankful for it.

I can tell who doesn't practice daily gratitude. They say why me all the time not in a joking manner and think the world is against them. The world not against anyone...it is just not interested in throwing anything else good someone’s way because they don't appreciate what they already have. When we spend more time looking at what is right in our lives, we simply have less time to spend on what's wrong.

Pain in this life is a given. Suffering is optional, and the length and depth of your suffering is often completely up to you and your reactions (systemic repression not included). Find something to be grateful for because practicing daily gratitude will turn things around for you faster than anything else and will make those inevitable nothing is going my way days easier to bear.

Does daily gratitude keep bad things from happening? Hell no, you guys. This is life. It’s not perfect or without wrinkles. There will be hard and terrible things. There is absolutely no shield for that. There will be days so dark we can’t see our way out of them. On those days we have to dig so deep for something to be grateful for that it can feel like turning yourself inside out. Personally I need to be inside out every once in a while to grasp the depth of my power to keep my life on my terms, if only in my mind. 

There is no limit on gratitude, so you can extend it as often as you are able, even on those horrible life feels like it’s ending days. Let gratitude over something small and seemingly insignificant be the rope you use to pull yourself out of the abyss. When we lose people who are of life sustaining importance, there’s a reason one of our first reactions is to thank the people who stood beside us in our pain. Gratitude connects us to each other and to the universe. 
Nothing has had a greater impact on my life than practicing gratitude daily. Nothing.

Thanks for reading here, friends. Happy Thanksgiving.

And happy happy birthday to my longtime great friend Gwen.


10 comments:

  1. I try super hard to be thankful I honestly do. I’m just so very afraid that once I start counting my blessings it will all be taken away from me. So I constantly hold my breath. (well figuratively😉)
    It stinks and completely irrational. I try to trick the universe/God and throw in a grateful statement every once in a while but I’m not that brave.
    Don’t get me wrong I don’t go around ho hum my life is horrible I am definitely not Eeyore but I’m not shouting from the rooftops either. Maybe It’s the “shouting”that scares me.
    I hope this comment wasn’t taken the wrong way I completely agree that everyone should be grateful but past experiences leaves me a bit weary.
    Happy Thanksgiving! My plans are to go watch a huge race , cuddle with my parents cat , try not to overthink what my 15 yr old nice says lol, and eat.

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  2. Amen. This life was not a promise of perfection. It is a chance to rise again & again to find the good. To be the good.

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  3. At the beginning of the year I was writing down one thing I was thankful for every day. However, then I took a mini blogging break & since that's where I had been writing it, that ended. I think once 2018 rolls around I'm going to try again, but this time in an actual journal. I also did it on slips of paper in a jar one year & that was cool to look at at the end of the year. Happy Thanksgiving!

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  4. Gratitude has changed my life to the most awesome life I could ever imagine ❣️ I am grateful every nanosecond ❣️Dreams come true. The best things in life are priceless ❣️ Happiest Thanksgiving to all❣️
    Love. Your. Very. Proud. Momma❣️

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  5. Happy Thanksgiving Steph and family! I really like that quote about suffering is optional. So true!

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  6. Spot on! Gratitude daily, even in the depth of woes - literally how I choose to live life. When my sister died 3 plus years ago I had a choice to make - live sulking or wake up and chose to see good in each day. I tell people every day no one promises life would be easy its a choice to see the good in times of bad. Have the best Thanksgiving Steph!!

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  7. When I've been feeling a little down I make myself write down ten things I'm grateful for every day. It's amazing what a little perspective shift can do. Happy Thanksgiving!

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  8. I absolutely agree with this. A few years ago I spent a month in India and when I came home I IMMEDIATELY felt so much gratitude for everything I had. I try to never forget those intense emotions I had right after I got home because I think it's a very positive way to go through life.

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  9. Thank you for the birthday shout out! (I did read this on Thursday but couldn't post from my phone.) xoxo

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  10. I've learned to be grateful even when the shit is bad. It has changed my life and makes the gratitude even greater.

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