You Have a Lot

Sometimes I feel like gratitude is overdone.We are told over and over, to the point of admonishment, to be grateful. I like the idea of "attitude of gratitude", but what does it really mean? For me, being thankful means realizing what I have without having to experience it's loss. One way to truly find out what you have to be grateful for is to lose it, the cliche "you never know what you have until it's gone". I was lucky to have learned gratitude at an early age. I lost my health, my looks, and my hair to Lupus when I was a teenager. I was put on high dose prednisone and underwent chemotherapy to try to stop the disease's progression. When my girlfriends were giddy over prom, I was in the hospital wondering if I'd make it to graduation. I never knew how much my health meant to me until it was threatened in a big way; I never felt as much joy as when I regained it and was told I had gone into remission years later. I eventually got my self back, hair and all, and a new found sense of gratitude for life and everything it brings.

Gratitude helps us not take the inevitable downs of life so seriously. Most of it is just small beans, right? So, your car breaks down, your furnace needs replacing, or your child is flunking math. Do what you can to fix the problem and move on, grateful that you have a car, a furnace, and a beautiful child... grateful that your problems pale in comparison to some.

Having gratitude for life has given me the opportunity to find happiness even in difficult times. During my divorce I started a gratitude journal, listing five things every day I was thankful for, to keep my focus on the positive. Some days I was most thankful for a warm bed to fall into. I kept my health throughout this stressful time, which I attribute to my inner peace by way of gratitude. I knew I would make it through, and focused on what needed to be done that day to bring me closer to the life I imagined.

These days not much rattles me, when my life starts to feel upside down I stop and remember how blessed I truly am. I take care of the people I love by being the best me possible, knowing that my time with them is limited. Maybe it was gratitude that started me on a path to personal growth. Gratitude helps me make the best of my life, let it make the best of yours.