The Gratitude Challenge

They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea. ~Francis Bacon

Gratitude is a good place to begin I think. It has power - to transform a dismal day, or moment, or season of life. My father used to say that a glass is half empty or half full. But it's both, Dad. Okay, I know. This isn't about a literal glass, it's about perception and how my attitude can make a huge difference in how I experience something. When I focus on the "glass" as half-empty pretty soon that glass fills up with sadness, or anger, or disappointment. And when I focus on the "glass" as half-full pretty soon I am filled with joy and happiness that helps me savor the gifts of the moment.

This is a trying time to be practicing gratitude. Everywhere I look someone is dealing with a loss of some kind in different areas of life: finances, relationships, death, illness, etc. etc. etc. Me too. Maybe it's more important to practice gratitude at such times. At the very least it will make me feel better and who knows, maybe I'll activate that law of attraction in a more savory direction.

In the interest of stirring up some joy in my life I decided to create a gratitude shrine. It started out as a wire tree with "leaves" that are labeled with different things I'm grateful for: friends, family, pets, adventures, healing, etc. I thought it would be fun to pick a word for the day like "friends" and let it be a theme. At different moments I could think of the friends I'm grateful for, qualities in a friend that I treasure, experiences I've shared with that friend, etc. So then I made a gratitude box and filled it with tokens that I could pick at random.

Now, all I have to do is practice. The choice is yours, Karen, which will it be - a glass full of joy or a glass full of disappointments?