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March 24, 2015
gratitude (n., v.)
It's about time I dedicated an entry to something that's kept me afloat many a time when I was sinking. And while it is in fact a noun, I've decided to post this entry as a verb (actually, an imperative verb, or noun + auxiliary verb, to get technical here for you), so as to invite you (heck, command you!) to.. have gratitude.
In the new year, I started a gratitude journal in an effort to give myself a time and place to capture the moments in my life - however trivial - that are simply good. A recognition of signs that the universe is looking out for me; a prompt, which over time may change negative thought patterns: Despite the ebb that may sometimes leave me gasping for air, my gratitude journal serves as a nightly reminder that there's still a flow that keeps me going in the right direction. On many a sleepless night when I'm fixated on something that's bothering me, it undulates me back to a place where I realize that there is more justice in life than we care to notice sometimes.
Bear with me as I take you through a sort of "chain of command" if you will, a set of definitions that will hopefully inspire you to find gratitude more often. After some digging into etymology, I discovered an intricate string of words that, as a whole, really exemplify the benefit of being grateful:
So what am I thankful for tonight?
1. For my friend getting pulled over on Saturday and getting a ticket for running a red light (sorry Mira, but bear with me!) It was a wake up call for us to drive safer, gratefully knowing that in her moment of indiscretion, nothing major came of it that a relatively small payment couldn't solve. Problems that money can solve aren't really great problems - unless you keep making the same mistake until it really costs you.
2. For having an income. The world doesn't revolve around money, but it does make the world go 'round, especially when you can pay a ticket and fill your gas tank without guilt and 'treat yo self' to a day up at Whistler's Scandinave spa. (And you realize the price of your sanity! I highly recommend this relatively small inve$tment that for me was one very effective way to give myself permission to shut my phone off and meditate in silence, read and just be, for an entire 5-hour afternoon.)
3. And those times when the 'tab' really just settles itself. My car got towed a few Saturdays ago when I forgot to move it because I decided to walk home one evening. The night was beautiful and I just wanted to take my time and forgot all about the sign that instructed I move it by Sunday morning. I woke up the next day to find it towed. Rather than fretting over $130, I actually felt worse about the fact that I was supposed to help my friend move that morning and was now without a vehicle. The move went fine in the end, and believe or not, within 24 hours, I recouped my money: I won a signed Canucks jersey at an event the next night that sold on craigslist - for yes, you guessed it, a best offer of $130. I didn't negotiate up despite the jersey's higher value as this was my thank you nod to the universe. And that Valentine's Day walk home that night? Worth even more to me because I have such fond memories of it.
(4.) Thanks for the reading (and to my friend Jason for inspiring me to b(log) this idea)!
In the new year, I started a gratitude journal in an effort to give myself a time and place to capture the moments in my life - however trivial - that are simply good. A recognition of signs that the universe is looking out for me; a prompt, which over time may change negative thought patterns: Despite the ebb that may sometimes leave me gasping for air, my gratitude journal serves as a nightly reminder that there's still a flow that keeps me going in the right direction. On many a sleepless night when I'm fixated on something that's bothering me, it undulates me back to a place where I realize that there is more justice in life than we care to notice sometimes.
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| And if we can remember to be grateful that we're alive, life does become fair. |
Sometimes it is by way of force that I jot down three things I am thankful for. And in doing so - by articulating this on paper - I prove to myself that despite my very grave, "serious" outlook of that moment, I can still discern the good within the bad; and not always let darker, duller moments overpower the brightness that, like many of us, I too often forget is always there to fuel me if I am prepared to tap into it.
grateful (adj.)So first and foremost, take that moment and search for the good - I promise you'll find it, and it'll feel great."pleasing to the mind," also "full of gratitude," from obsolete adj. grate "agreeable, thankful," from Latin gratus "pleasing" (see grace (n.))
- grace (n.)
- In doing so, you'll see the universe is giving you a lot of freebies - things you may be getting gratis, without directly working for it or deserving it, but that help to balance out the whole. Things do have a way of working out and sometimes in surprisingly elegant ways.
gratis (adv.)
- And when you get something, it's only fair to, at the very least, say thank you in return:
thanks (n.)And there you come full circle, feeling even better having reflected on the many assets in your life you may not always be logging in your emotional balance sheet. When there's a will to be happy, there is a way to be happy, and that way my friends is by having gratitude.
So what am I thankful for tonight?
1. For my friend getting pulled over on Saturday and getting a ticket for running a red light (sorry Mira, but bear with me!) It was a wake up call for us to drive safer, gratefully knowing that in her moment of indiscretion, nothing major came of it that a relatively small payment couldn't solve. Problems that money can solve aren't really great problems - unless you keep making the same mistake until it really costs you.
2. For having an income. The world doesn't revolve around money, but it does make the world go 'round, especially when you can pay a ticket and fill your gas tank without guilt and 'treat yo self' to a day up at Whistler's Scandinave spa. (And you realize the price of your sanity! I highly recommend this relatively small inve$tment that for me was one very effective way to give myself permission to shut my phone off and meditate in silence, read and just be, for an entire 5-hour afternoon.)
3. And those times when the 'tab' really just settles itself. My car got towed a few Saturdays ago when I forgot to move it because I decided to walk home one evening. The night was beautiful and I just wanted to take my time and forgot all about the sign that instructed I move it by Sunday morning. I woke up the next day to find it towed. Rather than fretting over $130, I actually felt worse about the fact that I was supposed to help my friend move that morning and was now without a vehicle. The move went fine in the end, and believe or not, within 24 hours, I recouped my money: I won a signed Canucks jersey at an event the next night that sold on craigslist - for yes, you guessed it, a best offer of $130. I didn't negotiate up despite the jersey's higher value as this was my thank you nod to the universe. And that Valentine's Day walk home that night? Worth even more to me because I have such fond memories of it.
(4.) Thanks for the reading (and to my friend Jason for inspiring me to b(log) this idea)!
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