A few weeks ago I read a quote…
"I think gratitude is the most spiritual and most important emotion of them all. It's the antidote to the two things that stop us which are fear and anger. Fear is why we don't take action and anger is why we get stuck. You can't be grateful and angry simultaneously, so it's really the reset button. It's the cleaner of the soul. What it does when you are grateful -'It's no longer about me, right?'- It's really about giving thanks and when you are giving thanks, you disappear and when you disappear, I believe you reconnect to the divine." - wonderful words by Tony Robbins from Mastering the Art of Gratitude.
It sounded lovely, but perhaps a bit simplistic? I wasn't sure.
But I decided to give it a try.
I closed my eyes and started to think about the things I am grateful for, starting with the obvious, but very often taken for granted..
JW, My Girl, my family and all their love, my health…
And then I started to think of less obvious but very powerful gratitude…
My parents, even though I lost both of them in the past few years, I was so very thankful that God had chosen to make me their daughter, and I was blessed with their love which will be with me the rest of my life. My heart began to swell.
I thought of things that were not necessarily good things at first, but grew to be blessings. My Girl, born so premature, and spending 4 months in the NICU at the beginning of her life. And then the glorious day when I finally was able to bring her home! That experience changed not only my life, but who I have become.
And then I thought of the little things… my silly chicken-girls, the happiness and excitement of finding a “treasure” at a yard sale, my beautiful knock-out roses in my garden, the sound of the bull frogs’ song that floats into my window each night as I fall asleep.
My goodness, it was working! It was overwhelming. My heart began to swell until I thought it would burst.
I walked around the rest of the day floating on a soft, lovely cloud of gratitude. And you know what? When your heart is full of gratitude, there is little room for anything negative. It just simply won’t fit. I never realized just how powerful and amazing this feeling was.
I hope this doesn't sound too "sunshiny" and it is most definitely NOT meant to be preachy. I know of course, there are times we all have pain, sadness and fear in our lives, and those emotions can overwhelm us. But perhaps if we can just find room for some small bit of gratitude, it will be the strength we need to keep going – the ray of sunlight to get us through to the next day. It is certainly worth a try.
By the way, every single picture of loveliness above in this post comes from an amazing
Box of Joy sent to me by Rachel, a friend I met on the internet some time ago.
This box appeared on my doorstep and was sent to me from her
for no particular reason at all except out of the goodness and generosity of her heart.
Opening it up was like an amazing, very special Vintage Christmas Day.
I am speechless and so very, very grateful.
Much Love,
Helena










