Gratitude

 

When in unpredictable times, in a culture steeped in artificial feelings, I want to cultivate a natural gratitude. One that’s healthy, organic, authentic and alive.  A calming gratitude that swaddles me in grace when I’m least expecting it—or like a fresh appreciation breathing life back into an aging body. 

A timely gratitude I forgot I really needed, like a long-lost answer to a prayer uttered since before I can remember, now coming home to welcoming arms to be embraced.  

Don’t let me be enticed by faux thankfulness that covers up and disguises my true state of being, or one that’s pushed or forced into place, or the kind where we’re conditioned to maintain a perpetually thankful attitude so that we’re blinded to wake-up calls, red flags, or warnings forecasting danger or abuse. 

Real gratitude is better, swelling up from within and brimming over the sides of your heart of hearts, spilling out to soothe the worried places. Journal it, if you care to, and let your spirit be reprieved, then be drenched in its life-affirming abundance and explore its range. 

Count your blessings, if you’re led to. Count them like stars in an infinite galaxy and be revived and uplifted. Be encouraged, be strengthened, be surprised, and be renewed. Find out what happens when you acknowledge what's real and good and honor it with thanks...

Be genuinely grateful and let no movement, doctrine, relationship or superstition dictate how your emotions should be or scare you into a permanent disposition because you feel indebted to remain.

~Susan Forbett