Gratitude

It is often a word bantered about but what does it really mean? First of all, the meaning is different for every person.

Thankful comes to mind but is that enough? Is it material like I just won the lottery? I just got into college? Maybe it’s a child realizing that you alone are the reason they have been blessed with someone who has given them unconditional love? How about that one friend you can always call that makes you grounded, makes you feel better sometimes without saying a word but just listening? One can be grateful for talent that sets themselves apart from others? How about settling a dilemma with clarity and conviction? Grateful has many flavors, many colors, many images, it spans the past and the present but must be attained or achieved for the future.

We can be grateful for good health. We can be grateful for those that brought us from the darkness of sickness and into the light of recovery? We can surely give thanks to the first responder who risked their own life to save you or another? You can be grateful for someone or some thing that constantly exceeds your expectations. How about a reconnection with someone or something from the past? A love interest, a good friend that had faded in the tumult of life? A photograph that you just found that conjures up happiness, love, a yearning for someone who is now just a memory of a life well lived or someone or something that brings emotion to just their image?

Grateful is not material… it is the fuel that stokes our fires to overcome obstacles, to do what we once thought unattainable or impossible. It is that shoulder to lean on to get to the next step. It is the heart that warms you inside and makes you feel whole. We are never truly alone however it can be difficult to see through the fog of uncertainty, confusion or mistrust. Sometimes patience is needed to wait until the fog lifts and clarity replaces indecision.

So grateful is a state of mind but it is so much more than that and it can come at anytime. Allow it’s presence to make your life fuller, to make it brighter to be the grease and the fuel to allow your mind to align with your heart for without it that emptiness will eat away and erode that inner self that is trying to escape the bondage of doubt, of self deprecation if uncertainty and feelings of being not enough or worthy of good things happening around you. Let that light shine in and allow you propel forward.

We can not relive the past but we can remember the good, the joy the happiness it once produced.

Avoid the memories of darkness because they are gone and you should not dwell in the past. It is the present that needs to be nourished. Be grateful for every morsel of life that you can reach for, for it is those moments that give us the life, the energy to move on.

Grateful is a blessing and as such should be revered.