Point #4: Gratitude as a Pair of Glasses (Edited Version)
Living gratefully today, I am appreciative of the work of meditation and the results it yields. I am also appreciative of the cool air, with a hint of my favorite season around the corner.
This was meant to be Friday's post, and I usually take Saturdays off, but Internet issues yesterday morning and exhaustion last evening have me right here, right now.
Point #4: Gratitude is a good pair of glasses to wear. It makes everything look better.
In the midst of surgeries, chemo treatments, hair loss, fears and uncertainties, scars, and much more, continuing the gratitude practice I had already been doing for over a decade was vital. It made day-to-day living and recovery from what was being thrown my way by a cancer diagnosis possible.
It also quieted the irrational fear and other detrimental emotions that I was known to manufacture in my own mind as well. Let me be clear. Rational fear is normal, especially with a cancer diagnosis. I am referring to the mind swirl and futile spinning I could slip into.
I find myself a little jaded, a little cynical as I look at the phrase I used ten years ago. "It makes everything look better?" I find myself a little grief-stricken. I find myself a little raw and vulnerable. Can pain and suffering put on a happy face? Should they? Can death look better? Should it?
So I am taking liberty as editor of my own words, and changing this point to:
"Gratitude is a good pair of glasses to wear. It brings clarity and depth of emotions that I would have otherwise missed."
Don't get me wrong. I 110% vouch for the value and benefits of living gratefully. I just prefer better than "better." I prefer authentic, genuine, awe-stricken, humbled, graced. I prefer the deeper, more meaningful experience of daily living that the pair of glasses known as living gratefully brings me.
This was meant to be Friday's post, and I usually take Saturdays off, but Internet issues yesterday morning and exhaustion last evening have me right here, right now.
Point #4: Gratitude is a good pair of glasses to wear. It makes everything look better.
In the midst of surgeries, chemo treatments, hair loss, fears and uncertainties, scars, and much more, continuing the gratitude practice I had already been doing for over a decade was vital. It made day-to-day living and recovery from what was being thrown my way by a cancer diagnosis possible.
It also quieted the irrational fear and other detrimental emotions that I was known to manufacture in my own mind as well. Let me be clear. Rational fear is normal, especially with a cancer diagnosis. I am referring to the mind swirl and futile spinning I could slip into.
I find myself a little jaded, a little cynical as I look at the phrase I used ten years ago. "It makes everything look better?" I find myself a little grief-stricken. I find myself a little raw and vulnerable. Can pain and suffering put on a happy face? Should they? Can death look better? Should it?
So I am taking liberty as editor of my own words, and changing this point to:
"Gratitude is a good pair of glasses to wear. It brings clarity and depth of emotions that I would have otherwise missed."
Don't get me wrong. I 110% vouch for the value and benefits of living gratefully. I just prefer better than "better." I prefer authentic, genuine, awe-stricken, humbled, graced. I prefer the deeper, more meaningful experience of daily living that the pair of glasses known as living gratefully brings me.
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