Automatic Doors
Today I am grateful for safe travels this weekend and for the fresh start that Emily gets as she begins life after high school.
Fresh starts. One of the many benefits of gratitude practice is that it keeps my life fresh. By trying to stay present in the here and now, by trying to be thankful and appreciative of gifts unearned, my attitude and outlook on life stays fresh and energized.
Today, I am also grateful for automatic doors. Sure, I am grateful for them when my hands are full or when I have a loaded cart to push to the car. But this weekend the gratitude I was feeling regarding automatic doors was a little less obvious. It actually had more to do with the lessons automatic doors can teach us, the insights about life they can remind us of.
The first insight that came to mind is that automatic doors only open if there's movement, action. If I take some steps in the right direction, a door opens. If I stay too far back or stay paralyzed by fear or indecision, nothing much happens. Do I have a situation in my life right now that I need to move on, so some doors open? Do you?
The second insight is one of those I always need to be reminded of. Just like I take automatic doors for granted at the grocery store, Target, and other such places, I take much for granted in my life. Gratitude practice helps me not forget that much of what I have is simply a gift and that I should simply acknowledge it as such, so I can simply go on living in a positive frame of mind that allows me to be kinder and gentler to those I come into contact with and also with myself.
Simple things like the air that I breathe, the working five senses I have, electricity, people who love me, recovery, health care, good running shoes. And when I say simple I am not implying unimportant. It is the opposite really. Without such simple things in life, there is no life.
Fresh starts. One of the many benefits of gratitude practice is that it keeps my life fresh. By trying to stay present in the here and now, by trying to be thankful and appreciative of gifts unearned, my attitude and outlook on life stays fresh and energized.
Today, I am also grateful for automatic doors. Sure, I am grateful for them when my hands are full or when I have a loaded cart to push to the car. But this weekend the gratitude I was feeling regarding automatic doors was a little less obvious. It actually had more to do with the lessons automatic doors can teach us, the insights about life they can remind us of.
The first insight that came to mind is that automatic doors only open if there's movement, action. If I take some steps in the right direction, a door opens. If I stay too far back or stay paralyzed by fear or indecision, nothing much happens. Do I have a situation in my life right now that I need to move on, so some doors open? Do you?
The second insight is one of those I always need to be reminded of. Just like I take automatic doors for granted at the grocery store, Target, and other such places, I take much for granted in my life. Gratitude practice helps me not forget that much of what I have is simply a gift and that I should simply acknowledge it as such, so I can simply go on living in a positive frame of mind that allows me to be kinder and gentler to those I come into contact with and also with myself.
Simple things like the air that I breathe, the working five senses I have, electricity, people who love me, recovery, health care, good running shoes. And when I say simple I am not implying unimportant. It is the opposite really. Without such simple things in life, there is no life.
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