Habitual Gratitude

Today I am grateful for my job and the connections I have made there. I am also grateful for another warm day. It was great to run in just shorts and a t-shirt yesterday. My daily gratitude journal is full of quotes surrounding the word gratitude. Below is one I came across in early April. It is a nice extension of my post Sunday about gifts or entitlements. "I am thankful for small mercies. I compared notes with one of my friends who expects everything of the universe, and is disappointed when anything is less than the best, and I found that I begin at the other extreme, expecting nothing, and am always full of thanks for moderate good . . . If we will take the good we find . . . we shall have heaping measures." ( Ralph Waldo Emerson) If we will take the good we find. That is what gratitude practice asks of us. Take the good. Notice the gifts. It also tells me to watch my expectations. If I expect too much, I will be disappointed. I have been a big fan of Ralph Waldo...

Today I am grateful for the recovery connections that I have. I am also grateful for the beginnings of green across our landscape. It was a glorious weather weekend. Finally. The previous two Sundays had been rainy and gray, with some snow thrown in. Last Monday it started to snow in the afternoon and Tuesday we woke to several inches of  insulting wet snow. And it was April 23. So when I say it was a glorious weather weekend, I mean it was a long-awaited, overdue, most welcome, much-needed glorious weather weekend. It was windy yesterday, but it was actually a warm wind. We haven't had a warm wind around here in months. Some of the words used to define glorious include delightful, wonderful, completely enjoyable. Yep! That about covers it. My skin says it is grateful too for the doses of Vitamin D it got over the weekend. Weather is one of those things that most of us pay at least some attention to. There is much I love about the weather where I live, but winter we...

Today I am grateful for the fresh air and sunshine we enjoyed yesterday . . . from a morning run, to yard work, to grilling brats and eating outside. I am also grateful for patience. There's room for improvement but it's better than it was. Practicing gratitude helps ensure that I don't take many significant gifts for granted, at least not all of the time. It is easy to take things for granted. Do you know anyone who takes their blessings for granted, who doesn't appreciate what they have because they believe they are simply entitled to it? Sure, we all know people like that. We are all that person at times. But the less I take things for granted, the more blessed I feel. It is easy to take our ability to walk, talk, eat, breathe, and see for granted. Sadly, too often it is only when someone loses one of these abilities that the full realization of the gift that it was hits. An accident, illness, someone's own choices, or someone else's choices takes away ...

Today I am grateful for rest--to renew my body and spirit. I am also grateful for daily hugs with my son. I had one of those days yesterday where I didn't feel very grateful and I didn't want to feel grateful. I wanted to feel sorry for myself and be cynical. What's the use? Who cares? I'll spare you the details, but I believe the Tamoxifen I take for breast cancer treatment deepens my PMS symptoms and I can have a day like I did yesterday. Lacking energy, lacking hope, lacking perspective. It's a physical and emotional combination and it's not fun. Thankfully, I recognize it for what it is, ride it out, and try to keep my mouth shut more. This morning I decided that I needed a gratitude walk when I took Oliver out. Here are some of the things I am grateful for: *The coming daylight is one of my favorite times of day; the moon glow was fading and the pink skies welcoming the sun were growing. *My legs and feet and their ability to carry me; I simply put m...

Today I am grateful for my husband Darcy's safe travels this week. I am also grateful for the feel of new carpet under my feet and the warming temperatures outside. "To dance again" could, figuratively speaking, be referring to Minnesotans being ready to dance again as it appears spring may actually be here to stay. We are supposed to see temperatures in the 70's this weekend. We will also see plenty of untanned arms and legs. We will not be self-conscious about it because we will be busy reveling in the outdoors. And we will be grateful for those arms and legs. For Boston bombing victim Adrianne Haslet-Davis "to dance again" literally is her hope, her plan. Despite losing her left foot five inches below the knee, she intends to get back to her passion-ballroom dancing and being a dance instructor. Though not a runner either, she has given herself another goal-run the Boston Marathon. I find her story and her outlook to be heartening. You can view her ...

Today I am grateful for simple pleasures like playing catch in the backyard with my son (the snow is almost gone again) and Culver's frozen custard. I am also grateful for my sister Aileen-her writings and her words of wisdom inspire me. She has also added another derivative to our gratitude word list: Gratitudinal adjustment. She joins my sisters Danita and Leonice and their contributions: Gratituding and Gratitudeness The reason practicing gratitude is so valuable to me is that it keeps me from slipping into self-pity. Self-pity used to be my default mode. Poor Lisa. Life is tough. No one understands. What's the use? The eighteen years I have practiced gratitude have been about putting self-pity in its place. But it is a process, not a task that is ever fully completed. I still have slips, going to the dark side of my thoughts. Insert a gratitudinal adjustment. Whatever has me down or frustrated can be offset by the many things that are going well, the many blessings...

Today I am grateful for the footfalls that carried Oliver and I on our morning walk. I am also grateful for the high intensity training workout that my niece Katie sent me. It is an intense 12 minutes, but my body says "thank you" after it recovers. I know I was complaining a little yesterday about our weather, but I still find plenty of reasons to appreciate it. Yesterday morning brought one such reason. The roads were mostly clear and wet, so the commute to work wasn't bad. I appreciate that. But what I appreciated more was the absolute spectacle I got to enjoy on that commute. The snow-laden trees were as picturesque as it gets. Absolutely stunning. Amazing nature. A picture could not do it justice. Such beauty is only fully appreciated when one is part of the landscape. Sure, I would have rather been walking down the trail near our house enjoying the view, compared to driving to work enjoying the view. But the key is I was enjoying the view. By my afternoon comm...