What if gratitude is not necessarily feeling good and approving about what has happened in our lives. If I am not careful, I find myself falling into a predictable litany of gratitudes for things that are largely the result of the privileged status I live in. I am grateful for the life I live, but much of the grounding of my life begins in circumstances way beyond my choosing.
What if there is more to gratitude than being happy that things are going well for me. What if gratitude is choosing to open to what is unfolding. What if gratitude is choosing to see what comes from the unexpected, the good, the bad, the otherwise. What if gratitude is choosing to let go of my requirements of how things must go. What if gratitude is allowing, simply, how life is unfolding to create new stepping stones to my path. And then, what if gratitude is not a feeling or a thought at all, but moving my foot to the next stone on the path. And then, what if gratitude is opening my eyes to the way this path I’m on leads, to what it reveals, to what it offers to me.
If I’m honest, that’s how it seems to be working out. When I reserve my gratitude for those events in life that I want, that I expect, that I require, what I’m left with is almost certainly dissatisfaction when those things don’t pan out.
When I let go (often, at first because I can’t keep my tight grip on things forever), when I open up. When I breathe, oh my, when I breathe. When I allow things (also known as my life) to unfold, new things show up that I had not expected, or wanted, or required. And, they are not all bad. In fact, some of them are quite good. The things that at first seem bad can actually be bad, but often enough they are just so unexpected. It takes me a minute to see beyond the surprise.
I don’t want to be misunderstood. Every day, I am so very grateful for the immediately good things: good health, good friends, good food, good shelter, good reports from my children and their growing families, good reports from my aging parents. The list of good things for which I am grateful can seem endless. But, gratitude doesn’t stop there. Other things, other reports, other experiences arise, and they trouble and unsettle me. They also invite me to look into them for the hidden outcomes they hold. Life serves up the unexpected, and gratitude can help me receive gifts that I don’t yet see.
Gratitude. It challenges me to live more boldly.
~Bob Patrick
I love this!!