PleaseThankYouComeAgain

In 48 hours millions of people in the U.S. will gather at someones table wearing their Sunday's best and preparing to eat until it's painful. Some families have the tradition of each guest saying what they are grateful for. In my opinion we all have much to be grateful for. It's easy to be grateful when you stop to think about how many people this year will actually have nothing. No food, no shelter, no family, no money, no job, or ill health.  It's easier still to find things to complain about: I hate my spouse, I hate this dress, I hate my job, I hate mornings ( oh yeah I really do!), I hate this relative, I hate having to drive over to so & so's house.....no one really has to put much thought into creating any list of dislikes and hates.

When we start taking for granted how much we really have already we start closing our hearts and when we close our hearts we start to lose things we should have been grateful for. Essentially we make room for only bad, the negative. For many of us, feeling unsatisfied, critical, depressed and angry is like slipping to our favorite sweater or comfy robe. It's all we know and we begin to resent those people around us who are too perky, too happy, too optimistic. We resent them for seeing through rose colored glasses and we add this observation to our list of complaints. Sound familiar?

Here's what I know for sure......

Negativity creates poor health. An imbalance inside and out. Life is but a heartbeat away to eternity. We are never guaranteed a sunrise. The bible reminds us that our days are as "swift as a runner"--- The fact that each of us does wake up, is in itself, a miracle. Ask anyone who has survived a life altering event what they're most grateful for they will tell you that they lost everything but they're alive to rebuild. We saw this time and time again in Hurricane Katrina and more recently with Hurricane Sandy. The bible tells us that God wants nothing but pleasure for us but sometimes we are faced with tragedy and suffering as a way of making us grateful and preparing us for the next phase of life. In my own personal quest for "Zen" I have discovered that I still have much to learn, practice makes perfect and gratitude is crucial for any form of success.I am still learning how much gratitude plays a part of my life. We celebrate the small things. The point is that gratitude is part and parcel in staying open to even more.  My son said best when he observed that the glass is neither half full or half empty but rather always full....part liquid and part air = always full. What makes this so unique is that his life has been in overdrive of tiny little perfectly displayed disasters. His parents argue too often, his father picks at and on him and yet he can always find something to be happy about! The good news, for him, is that when the liquid is gone, he can always get more. That, my friends, is the key to success!

I leave you with this...... 

When we gather at the dining table this Thursday, we have many things to be grateful for. Yes, your sister's kid is a pain in the ass. You could be attending their funeral instead. Yes, the drive to your sister's house is long and littered with road rage and high gas prices. You could have no car and forced to miss the festivities. Yes, uncle George is gonna be and his jokes suck.... you DO laugh at some of them and you'll miss them when he's gone. Yes, my son is allergic to aspirin, milk and penicillin but he IS alive and WILL grow old. Rose colored glasses are okay and sometimes necessary. When I sit down at the table Thursday I am grateful for every friendship I've cultivated on Twitter, I am grateful that my leg has finally healed, I am grateful that my brothers are talking to each other and one brother has started talking to our mom again after 3 years, I am grateful that my husband loves me the best he can, I am grateful that my 18 year old has such an awesome sense of humor and that he can always make me laugh. I am grateful that my 14 year old does not have Reyes Syndrome! We celebrate the little things in big ways!