The Attitude of Gratitude

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have  into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order,  confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a  stranger into a friend. –Melody Beattie

The title of my post is one of the million “AA-isms” you hear in the meetings of the 12-step program.  Here’s what it means to me:

1.  There is always something to be grateful for, no matter how bad you think your life is.  If you have the ability to question this statement, you already have two things to be grateful for:  that you are alive, and that you have the intelligence to question.  You can build from that point.

2.  If you consciously work on developing the attitude of gratitude, it is impossible to feel bad.  Seriously, try it.  The next time you are pissed off at something, step back, and start listing the things in your life for which you are grateful.  I am betting that before you are halfway through your list you will feel better, if not silly for being pissed off in the first place.

Here is what I am grateful for today:  the ability to hit the reset button on life.  Through a series of small events, my day did not start off well, and I reacted to those events with frustration.  Since I knew I would be attending an 8 am meeting, I was, first, grateful for the existence of that meeting, and my membership in a Fellowship that allows me to be inspired daily.  The topic of the meeting was gratitude (surprise!), and I was then grateful for the reminder of how good my life is.  Finally, and most important to me this morning, I am grateful for my new perspective that allows me to look at my own part in this morning’s events, and to make right my wrong-doing, instead of letting it fester for what could have been days on end (if grudge-holding was an Olympic sport, I would have been a gold medalist).

All of that wisdom before 9 am… it’s going to be a great day!