For most of us, gratitude is conditional. It’s easier to be grateful when you are on vacation than when the alarm goes off on Monday morning.
But what if we looked for gratitude in our lives, no matter the circumstances? Like those people that always look for a problem, but completely flipped.
And isn’t it funny that most of us can come up with a long list of people we think are constantly seeking out problems, but struggle to think of people that seek out gratitude??
It’s funny, and ironic, because really they are just different sides of the same coin.
If you have a watchful eye for what is wrong, you are clearly a very attentive person.
So think about how much more exciting and joyful your life would be if you used that same eye to seek out the beautiful things in life?
All this is top of mind for me, because I went to a funeral today and the theme was exactly that- gratitude. Not what you’d expect from a funeral, particular one like this.
It was for a beautiful woman that is gone too soon. She was only 49, and after almost a decade of extraordinary courage and bravery fighting breast cancer, she passed.
Her husband (truly one of the kindest people I know) lost the love of his life. And their children, only 12 and 15, lost a caring and attentive mother.
But instead of focusing on the unfairness of her death, or even the cruelty of cancer, the service was focused around the beauty of life- and gratitude.
Like most people in the room, I cried throughout. Because it was beyond anything I had ever experienced.
As she knew the end was near and she started planning her funeral, she didn’t want the service to focus on all she had accomplished over the years (and the accomplishments were significant). Instead she wanted everyone to focus on the beauty in their own lives. A very powerful message that ironically emphasized even more the caring and loving person she was.
She wanted us to think about each day as a precious gift. The message was so clear, and it impacted everyone there.
It’s a message that I completely buy-in to, but I forget to live consistently.
I hope that what hit me today- in a very different way than I’ve ever experienced before- isn’t something I abandon when gratitude doesn’t come easy.
I’m reminded that worrying about the little things is just tuning into the noise. It distracts you from what really matters. It gets you out of the flow of life.
The more I look for beauty, the more I see it all around me.
The more I remind myself that life is about enjoying and experiencing- not perfecting- the happier I am. These are just plain truths.
So instead of rushing back to work after the service, I met friends for lunch, and was really just present in the moment. I didn’t check my phone, I didn’t worry about the time, I just enjoyed every moment. And not surprisingly, the world around me continued to go on just fine.
I was planning to write something about healthy snacks to take camping for my post today. There is nothing wrong with that article (which I will most certainly write another time), but it just didn’t seem as important as what I learned today.
Today, I learned the importance of being grateful and present. That worrying about all the things that are floating around in my head takes away from all the goodness that is happening in my life, at this moment and in this place.
