Changed Forever

Today I am grateful for the lines in my journals that somehow help guide my thoughts. I am also grateful for vehicles in good working order and money to pay for gas for them. 

In the final installment of breaking down a wonderful quote, we get to the dividends, the real meat of it all. Gratitude practice and an open mind and heart work magic on us fragile and flawed human beings.

"Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life . . . and the world." 

Sarah Ban Breathnach

One might think that after 22 years of daily gratitude journaling and five years of habitually blogging about the topic, that the pace of change has slowed for me. It hasn't. Maybe because I started from such a deep hole of self-pity and self-centered thinking. (Whether I am thinking good or ill of myself, lots of time spent thinking about little ole' me is self-centered.) 

When I started in sobriety, working on recovery from alcoholism, I could have never fathomed going from how I felt then to how I feel today. From self-hatred to self-acceptance is a long journey. The

same is true of gratitude practice. I couldn't have guessed in those early months, as the practice slowly changed my unhealthy perceptions, that it would continue to build and bolster me all these days later.

When I apply gratefulness to my view, I see more of life's blessings, which in turn leads to better choices and more respect for self and others on my part. And a positive ripple becomes a wave carrying me away from darkness and into light, away from mired in muck to energized and moving into the next moments and hours with more peace.

I look forward to where the practice of gratitude will continue to take me. So much more lies ahead. 

I am taking a blog break until next week. Until then, keep a grateful mindset and keep sharing what you discover.