A Magic Wand, Transforming All
Seems like a lot of lot of my postings and pokings are about practicing the discipline of gratitude, day in and day out, in a wide variety of situations, when you don’t feel grateful but reach for it anyway. In the mere reaching, the asking of “What’s great about this?” there appears to be real power, even if the answer is time release and elusive in the moment. I don’t wake up every day with a grateful heart and often don’t have one after writing in my journal, but I have come to believe in doing it anyway. I offer that in the sense of “Take my advice, I’m not using it.”
This notion is a large chunk of what our Inquiry Into A Gratitude-Inspired Life has suggested to me so far, in broad brushstrokes. Sometimes, the quest for “what’s great about this is?” can feel downright distasteful, counter intuitive, fake, inauthentic, rote, even opposed to “truth.” Examples could be making a list of “what’s great about this?” with respect to any current POTUS (depending on one’s political persuasion) or an asshole boss or “what’s great about this?” with respect to a car accident or, more tragically, the death of a loved one. None feel like an occasion for practicing gratitude, they feel counter intuitive.
In this regard, the other day I thought of The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, published in 1978. Author Michael Hart had a brief bio on each and then defended why they were on the list and in what order. He felt the need to include Hitler, as distasteful as it was to him have him in the book. Hart defended the choice by noting that the book wasn’t about the hundred best people or the most inspiring or spiritual, only the most influential. To be true to his stated purpose he couldn’t cherry-pick and ignore those whom he found abhorrent or objectionable. He had to just push through his resistance.
I’m only bringing it up because that’s the kind of resistance and gratitude headwinds I sometimes find myself experiencing. The truth is however that there are days when it’s easy to feel grateful, like one such last week. After days of ninety or near ninety with high dew point and humidity here in the Northeast, a wild flashy late afternoon thunderstorm was unleashed. It was the kind when you wonder if it will cool things off or make it even more humid.
The former came to pass and Sunday dawned cool and fresh and seductive and you could walk outside by the river and feel kissed and held by the light breeze, as if you could take a trust fall backwards and would somehow be supported like a big pillow. You felt and breathed thank you, even if you didn’t think to say it. I heard this inner voice saying “It’s OK that it’s easy to be thankful today. Just enjoy it. The practice doesn’t always have to be hard, some days it’s really easy.”
I felt like the words were directed to me, for me, saying all this work on gratitude is great, you’re taking up ground, saying yes to all of it, but some days it’s a piece of cake. We’re all entitled to those days and experiences, when it gushes forth spontaneously without difficulty. Just enjoy the day and don’t fret about the practice. Don’t worry today about whether you’ll be grateful when things are really tough. Just let it go.
I don’t know for whom else this is familiar, but it gave me a good laugh at myself and a release. I happened to come across this idea from Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov –“The day I acquired the habit of consciously pronouncing the words ‘thank you,’ I felt I had gained possession of a magic wand capable of transforming everything.”
All I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you.
