GRATITUDE

     Is it possible that most of us fail to properly recognize how truly blessed we are? Do we take our health for granted, or the health of our children, or our homes, or our jobs, or the incredible variety of food that is available to us? A mention of the importance of gratitude often illicits sighs of irritation and a rolling of the eyes. Sometimes, people even say with righteous indignation that they have nothing to be grateful for, which, of course, is never true, but it's how they feel. They are blocked and closed, utterly shut off.
     For me, gratitude is the great growing emotion, and one of the most powerful tools for transmuting darkness into light, depression into gladness, lethargy into enthusiasm, and hatred into love. It can begin with something absolutely simplistic. I am grateful for the way the bathroom rug feels on my bare feet in the mornings. And it snowballs easily. I am grateful for green tea, or coffee, as the case may be. I am grateful for breakfast, for my commercial free radio, for the fact that my car starts and runs and is pretty good on gas. I am grateful that I have a car. I am grateful that I have a job. I am grateful for sunny days and spring breezes. I am grateful that I am becoming more flexible in every way the older I get. I am grateful that I believe in possibility, that I see the beauty in most people, and that I can laugh more easily than I once could. I am grateful for dusk and the internet and good books and inspiration. I am grateful that I want what I have most of the time, and don't grasp after things desperately the way I used to. I am grateful for the man I love, my beautiful children, the child in me, my parents, and all the things that I learn and experience every day. I am grateful to be teachable. I am grateful to be alive.
     Articulating gratituide expands the joy in my life. There is always something. Endless blessings surround me on all sides if I open my heart. I am willing. I begin now, today, right here where I sit.

I am aware of my blessings and express my gratitude. I feel the joy in me expand as I open my heart.