Loving the Chaos

If you live in North America, you have either just finished celebrating Thanksgiving or you are getting ready to.  What an interesting idea that we devote a whole day to giving thanks.  Don’t get me wrong - I like turkey and family gatherings and falling leaves.  In fact Thanksgiving is one of my favourite holidays.

It just seems that in many ways we have reduced gratitude to another Hallmark experience.  Like Mothers Day or Fathers Day.  We check off that we have marked the occasion and then tuck it away for another year.

If being thankful is such a simple concept then why does gratitude seem to be so complicated?  

Ask ten people and you will likely get ten difference answers to the how’s and why’s of counting your blessings. Recently the Vancouver Sun devoted a full page to examining the ins and outs of giving thanks. 

Maybe why we have so little time for gratitude is because we are so focused on what we don’t have that we overlook what we do have. 

Check it out…. 

On any given day do you hear more people whining and complaining about something or more people saying I’m counting my blessings.

It seems to me that gratitude is just a perspective you hold.  If you travel through this world with the idea that you are blessed - no matter what your circumstances - life looks different. It doesn’t seem quite so hard.  And when the tougher times do come, seeing them as an opportunity rather than a punishment, helps to make them less tough.

That’s the trick - being able to see the gifts in the things that at first don’t seem like a gift.  When it’s easy, it’s easy.  Being grateful when it’s hard - that’s where the riches are.