gratitude

                                

 (Hayley Mills, as Pollyanna. All young girls love this movie)

A special quality

I believe that this is one of the most important qualities that any of us can have. When I was a child I saw a movie called Pollyanna. Pollyanna was always glad about things & always found the special in life. I was so influenced by this movie! By being that way she inadvertently taught grumpy people how to be loving. I became a Pollyanna. I was so glad about so much, & now that I am so much older, I still like to be glad.

We can still be grateful when things aren't so good

Of course, life has it's moments, & I too have felt & experienced trauma. I simply refuse to believe anyone who makes out that life has always been easy for them. And, conversely, I am amazed about some of the things that people complain about in their lives. In these moments, I always think about how much that person has to be grateful for.

Things that I am grateful for, today

Today, I am maxed out with gratitude! A friend has procured me a wee notebook computer for next to nothing. It is gorgeous. I am using it right now. I was so gobsmacked when I found out. And grateful. My older one was getting very, very tired. My new one is so tiny & modern.

And I was having a chai yesterday at the cafe across the road from where I live, baulking at going home, where a large messy overgrown garden which was masquerading as a forest, awaited me. As it has awaited me, for months. The stalks of most of the weeds were so thick that I couldn't pull them out. I was reduced to pruning those darn weeds, as well as pulling out masses of long grass. So overwhelming, so I had been putting everything off, over & over. But, since I learnt about "just do it!", I had been looking at the forest all week, saying my new mantra. And it finally worked. In the strangest way.

So, I was in the aforementioned cafe, when I ran into a new friend. He was a conventional builder & now makes earth houses. He loves the soil. I was smiling & chatting away with him & mentioned how I'd better go home & plant some seedlings I had been given, & was so chuffed to receive, in a couple of garden boxes that I had (mostly) been able to weed. He insisted on helping me....saw my garden dilemma, & in 2 hours had pulled out all those weeds from the large forest, to reveal heaps of garden boxes. I was amazed. He then grabbed all the bags of compost that I couldn't lift out of my car (yes, I know, I'm pathetic), quickly dug up some of the boxes & put in the compost.

OMG, and I'm so darned grateful. And I said my usual: "thank you universe". I'm often saying that. It's an affirming of gratitude.

When I went through a very difficult time, some years back, every time that I fell into making the same old silly mistakes followed by unfavourable repercussions, I would say: "Thank you, universe". I was consciously doing this. The silent part of the thank-you was: "for reminding me to stop doing silly things that are wrong for my life, & for showing me when I do them". It worked. I stopped doing the things that caused problems for me.

We all do that. Make mistakes. I think that mistakes are okay. I've always told my youngest & my grandchildren that in order to have successes, we must also have mistakes, & we learn from our mistakes. Mistakes are not the end of the world! They are part of life. They teach us how to find ways to do & not to do, things.

                           

Oprah encouraged us all to be grateful

I truly believe that gratitude makes us happier, more content. And a big thank you to Oprah Winfrey for encouraging millions of people to introduce gratitude into their lives. If you want to have a gratitude journal, at the end of each day, write out the things that happened for which you are grateful Or, even easier, write a certain number of gratitude things: 3,5, whatever. If the day was less than perfect, there is still much to be grateful for. You will be surprised.