Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.  It turns what we have into enough, and more.  It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity...   It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events.  Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.

—Melodie Beatty

I had never heard that quote before last week, and last week I heard it twice, on two separate days and under totally different circumstances.  I decided that somebody out there wants me to hear this.   Have you ever had that experience where you hear a new concept or idea, and suddenly you keep hearing it everywhere?   I guess that when we open our mind to new possibilities, the possibilities come flooding in, or when we hear something that resonates with us, the world colludes to reinforce that concept for us, to remind us of what is important.

Of course the timing of this is perfect, with Thanksgiving fast approaching.  Gratitude, giving thanks, that’s what this wonderful holiday is about, right?  As I am sure you know, Thanksgiving is not an Irish holiday, but upon moving here I gladly embraced the much-needed vacation days in November, and it fast became my favorite holiday of the year.  For me it’s about family.   Family, however you define it, coming together without gifts, without fuss... well, apart from the annual power struggle between my mother-in-law and my husband over control of the small kitchen in our house, the wrestling with a 22-pound turkey, and, inevitably, the forgetting to take the oyster dressing out of the oven until after dinner.   I am sure my mother-in-law will interject here to remind me that all I ever have to do is mash the potatoes, but that is the beauty of convincing people you can’t cook and, being Irish, all you really know about is potatoes!

But family quirks and quarrels aside, Thanksgiving truly is a beautiful holiday, marking the beginning of the season, often taking place in perfect fall weather, and providing a time to rest, and simply be together, before all the craziness begins.   This is a time to give thanks.  No matter what the past year held for you, and we know it's been trying, the beauty of this life is that you will always find something to be grateful for, if you look for it.  And choosing to be grateful — and it is a choice — can change everything.  As Melodie Beatty says, “It turns what we have into enough”.  How powerful is that?  The moment when we know we have enough!

As we all know, not everyone has enough, and that will be the subject of my next post, but for now, take some time to remember what you have to be grateful for.  Try for just one day to find something to be grateful for in everything that happens, and I mean everything, the good and the bad.  Try it and let me know how it feels.

By the way, all joking aside, I am extremely grateful for my in-laws.   I am lucky to have the most supportive, loving, and appreciative in-laws in the world, and I look forward to telling them that, next Thursday, after I’ve mashed the potatoes!