Grateful for such good friends and a life of all the things I ever wanted, but had no idea I would ever receive.
There are two ways to go through life. You can aim to be at peace or always arguing with life. If you are aiming for peace, then your accomplishments have fuel behind the energy. Fuel that internally knows the ultimate outcome is for your benefit. Always arguing is more like beating your head against the wall – always “trying”, but not knowing why you’re trying.
I prefer to envision myself completely at peace before I die. And if I die tomorrow, then I shall be at peace today. With how I treat people, with how I receive people. With how I look into a person’s eyes, to how I give myself the opportunity to create and soak in all that is around me.
Do what you want! Run when you feel like it. Pick flowers. Jump in the water. This is life.
I will do anything and everything I want in this life. But, how do we guide the want? It is a question discerned throughout every decade. And in the end, we are kinder than we think. The word “want” insinuates that we have the free will to literally be horrific people or good natured people. So then, define good natured. The fact that we spend this much time pondering how to “guide the want”, I’d say we’re headed in the direction of good natured, but not fully on board with it.
Many of us plateau once we reach success and begin to give to ourselves more so than to others. Define “giving to ourselves.” For this you must fast forward that conversation with yourself and we meet up at the end with the same question, even though we are different people. The question we arrive at is: How much giving TO ourselves makes us truly happy?
From my own life experiences and reflections, I can correct that happiness actually has nothing to do with giving of any kind. It actually stems from a deeper part of our being. It stems from being grateful – the exact opposite of giving.
We hear stories of children who came from nothing, and still found success. We resurrect leaders who came from poverty and wonder how or why they fought for what they believed in without a doubt. We read about those who forgave and forgot, and are now so happy because they do not let their past hold them back one ounce.
It all stems from gratitude.
…And soon, moments in life can be broken down frame by frame, like this one, right here. Running around the neighborhood.
Why is gratitude important? How did it get overlooked? Why don’t more people talk about it? Because it takes conscious thought, reflection, and decisions.
Gratitude is utterly being grateful for everything and everyone. There is a trigger in everyone’s life where they become grateful. Whether, something happened (one, large difficult life experience), and they are now grateful or they grow old (reflecting on multiple life experiences) and are now grateful.
For me, divorce taught me gratitude. Ending a relationship with someone I grew up with allowed me to cling to everything I already had in my life. I became grateful. I began to see purpose in every action, word, moment, person, wave, and prayer.
My Aunt lost her husband, father, and son in the span of 2 years. She became grateful for her brother, sister-in-law, cousins in other states, grandsons, niece, and all who had ever gone before her.
It can be taught – just like teaching and learning any skill. While pouring, all I can think of is how this skill will literally make someone’s day.
And for some of us, gratitude doesn’t kick in until we are old and wise – until we have had the time to look back and appreciate all the ups and downs. But, gratitude can come quicker than you think. And it can be forced upon you or you can choose to learn it. It CAN BE taught. And when it is, it is like an unveiling of a simple word that if you think about it hard enough, you either understand the simple word or you do not.
To appreciate someone, you must see yourself as admiring them and learning from them. To appreciate a person, you in a sense, love them. You love every moment under their wing. You love that you can improve as a person from just observing, listening, and allowing them to be your teacher.
Appreciating nature throughout every run – I can’t help it.
To appreciate nature, you must see the world as something greater than you. The birds chirping become magical in a sense. The ocean waves become a mystical being providing you with peace and calmness. The wind sends a current of wisdom nearly flooding you with endless flutters of hope, possibility, and protection. From nature, you then are soaking up a form of love as well – love sent from all that just comes from this earth. It will transform you and heal you, if you see it through the eyes of gratefulness.
Gratitude requires humility, and gratitude generates love.
If this is the case, then you can reach a level of falling in love with life. This Life of Gratitude consists of maintaining family, healthy relationships, genuine friendships, honest interactions, present moments, and giving into your surroundings (nature, where you live, everything you come into contact with.)
I am utterly grateful for these people and this life. I had to just trust the call here and know that it was meant to be – and it sure is.
For myself, it seems I have been naturally grateful for a lot of things. But just being grateful is not enough to change my mindset. Sometimes, I have to say it, admit it, affirm it with writing and prayer. Sometimes I must specifically acknowledge which area in my life I am currently grateful for and which people I know have come into my life to help transform me into what/who I crave to be. This helps highlight which areas in my life may be holding me back from internally being at peace with myself and ultimately at peace with life.
Once in this place of gratitude, you truly feel “in love” with it all. It’s when the stars align constantly. When the universe sends you everything you need. Those moments where you feel like something is watching out for you or is purposely at work in your life. It is the beginning of the rest of your life, where you can finally just trust what the world is handing you and trust what God is telling you to do.
The first real day that I could drive around with my sun roof open. Enter Spring. Grateful. What do you want? How are you going to make it happen? You have much to look forward to and it’s always more than you asked for.
Gratitude is that powerful. And since love is a direct byproduct of it, you are able to give so much love to yourself and then to others in the end. It’s as if you come full circle. You are finally able to be completely happy with all you have, that you no longer worry about the future, or question the motives. You just DO. You just ACT. You just BE. You just MOVE.
It is a powerful state of living to be in. It might be what living really is. All I know is that this state of living in gratitude becomes permanent. Once you are there, it cannot be stopped. Since you are not bothered with the “what if” and “why” anymore, you are just working on your passions, fulfilling desires, and feeling settled in to your own shoes. You just begin to live it all out without thinking, and the rest is history. The rest just plays out as it should, because you trust that your wills and wants are guided by having already done the work to find peace in this life.
