Gratitude Beyond Thankfulness Journals
We often hear people talk about gratitude journals, thankfulness meditation and practising an attitude of gratitude. While there is nothing wrong with any of that, there are times we confuse it for an antidote. As something that can get us out of our minds and save us from ourselves. But that isn’t what gratitude is.
Gratitude is not a holy grail of answers, solutions, and courage. It isn’t something to strive to accomplish. It isn’t sacred. It isn’t a goodness meter. Gratitude should never be painful to draw out.
Gratitude is sweet, soft, and often inaudible. Your role is to hold up a mic to parts of yourself that are already whispering hymns of thankfulness. Allow the melody to become a little louder. Amplify the grace in you that is showing itself.
It won’t change everything. There will still be pain, hurt, sorrow, grief, and all those feelings that make us deeply uncomfortable.
But amidst all the chaos and turmoil, you will remember that there are spaces between your flesh and bones that are home to fragments of goodness. That you keep faith nestled in nooks and crannies of your heart that nothing can erode. That you can follow the echoes of loss and fall into the slushes of agony, but there are rooms in your being that will still be joyful.
This could become the wind that carries you forward, even when you look back. It could become the logic that anchors you when you are emotionally drowning. It could be a tiny hole from where the light gets in during your darkest days. It could be a small clearing you create to rest your worn out being in.
No matter what it is, I know that gratitude is not almighty. It isn’t grandiose or intimidating. It isn’t a coveted ideal, or a sought after jewel we must fight battles to own. Gratitude is ours.
It’s scruffy, dusty, and unpolished. It sits on the floor and on pavements and is always up for a good tete-a-tete. It’s less God and more human. It is a human condition of giving praise. Never forget that gratitude is wholly ours.
