“The miracle of gratitude is that it shifts your perception to such an extent that it changes the world you see.” ~ Dr. Robert Holden
There are two kinds of people in this world: those who live like each moment is a blessing and those who believe happens by chance or luck.
There are also two ways of living this life: being grateful for everything we experience and receive, or only giving thanks when prompted.
Today is Thanksgiving in the United States. While heartache abounds over the fact that Native American’s are currently being tear gassed at Standing Rock, today isn’t about that celebration that began on a small settlement in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Today Thanksgiving is about who we are and what type of society we are becoming. Today is a day when we should show our thanks and gratitude for the lives we live, the people we love and the friends we are surrounded by.
Do we appreciate each and every moment in this life?
If not—why?
Why do we let the bitterness, the arguments, the appointments at 9 a.m., work meetings and obligations fast forward our life in such a way that we spend most of our time being ungrateful?
How often do we stop and just tell someone, “thank you, for being you“?
How often do we just wrap our arms around someone, or kiss them and whisper, “I love you” in their ear?
How often do we leave the dishes in the sink, the work on the counter and instead go and roll around tickling our children?
Because those moments, are not distractions from life, but the very reason we have life at all.
These are the moments of living with a grateful heart.
When we wake with a grateful heart to a new day, every single second suddenly becomes a blessing.
I’m blessed for the way I wake up safe and warm every morning.
I’m blessed for the two little girls who stumble into the bathroom with messy blonde hair and bare chests and whisper, “Good Morning Momma.”
I’m blessed to see the colors of the sunrise streak across the sky on my way to work, and as I lay my head down each evening I feel blessed to have had the day I did.
It doesn’t matter if it went perfectly, or if I sat and had tears rolling down my cheeks, it doesn’t even matter if I let my frustrations get the best of me and I raised my voice.
Because in that moment, I know that I did the best that I could for that day and I am grateful for another day, another tomorrow to try and do better.
If we’re not grateful for today, how are we going to be grateful for what we receive down the line?
Will enough ever truly be—enough?
Or will we pass our days in such a constant state of wanting that we miss what we have, right now?
Today, I challenge you—every single one of you—to look at each moment, each person, each instance you experience and send gratitude its way.
I challenge you to look beyond the family arguments that might ensue over the stuffing and instead see the hurting in your family members eyes—send them love, and take a minute to sit and ask, “how are you?” and really listen.
I challenge us today to look at what we have, not what we don’t.
I challenge us today to receive each smile, laugh, kiss and conversation as if it was a specially–wrapped gift just for us—because it is.
This life is mine, yours and ours, and by living in each moment and being grateful for what we have, we might just realize we already have it all.
Author: Kate Rose
Image: Author’s own / Instagram
Editor: Sara Kärpänen
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