The Many Sides of Gratitude
Why We Should Allow Ourselves to Feel Good
I’ve been thinking about gratitude off and on all day. Largely because during the past two weeks the weather has been brutal, following an unprecedented path of dangerously low temps, destructive winds, blizzard conditions, and torrential rain and flooding across the U.S. This is getting to be the new normal even though humans continue the business of being by going about their daily lives trying to ignore a continuous stream of bad news.
That’s a topic for another article, however.
Today, the topic is gratitude. As the holidays came and went, the tradition to count your blessings dominated social media. You know, expressing gratitude for things like family, friends, a roof over your head, food in your belly, electric power, and unfrozen water pipes. This was not the time, however, to thank your creator for making it possible to buy that snazzy new car. That would be a bit much during such trying, even dangerous times for so many.
I’m no different.
I raised my eyes to the dark skies and hoped for the best, but I was willing to settle for second best. In other words, the best would be that no one lost their power during the freezing temperatures. I really hoped for that. The second best would be that I wouldn’t lose my power.
I got my wish.
I didn’t lose my power. And I’m deeply grateful. Frozen pipes and cold rooms are not to be taken lightly. People died during this last storm.
Yesterday, I stumbled across something that I had written on Facebook a few years ago. Facebook likes to remind me of what I was thinking about in 2017 or 2019 on a given day.
Here’s what I wrote on January 2, 2018:
Allowing myself to feel grateful is an overall blissful state of mind. Through the random luck of life, I find myself this morning with a full belly in a warm and comfortable house. When I remember to take note of the vast contrast of living conditions throughout the world, it humbles me. I’m not special. Just another living, breathing member of one of a multitude of species that inhabits this planet. I have no explanation for why I am warm and well fed this morning and someone else isn’t, but I’m also fully aware that my luck could change tomorrow. Thus, all I really have is today. If I can’t appreciate the feel-good moments that come my way, often unannounced, all I’m left with are the other bits of life. You know, the stress, worry, fear, pain and suffering of the human experience. I don’t want to be numbered among those with whom good luck, randomly placed on my doorstep, is wasted.
— Just Me seeking perspective
My thoughts about blessings v good luck haven’t changed.
In fact, I can’t help but cringe when people thank a god for blessing them personally with abundance. Even as a kid, I felt weird expressing those sentiments. It seemed arrogant even mean to me.
Why would a god give one person more than they need and another person not enough to survive?
Why would a god give one person a raise, a new car, good looks, a high IQ, or a mansion to call home while leaving someone else to live on the streets in a war-torn country, hungry, injured, even dying in pain and agony?
Naw! I started questioning that rationale when I was about ten years old and eventually made peace with the utter randomness of life.
We have no idea what tomorrow holds. That’s the truth. One minute we can be enjoying a lavish dinner in a swanky restaurant and tomorrow we could get hit by a car and never walk again. I contend that the uncertainties of life are why humans are so anxious, always plotting and planning a way out of potential pain and suffering. Let’s face it, everyone’s luck runs out eventually. We all die.
That’s why death has often been referred to as the great equalizer.
Yes, I’m grateful for my good luck. Sometimes I forget to be grateful, but that’s partly because my culture tells me that I deserve to be able to live my best life. It’s a very modern concept in parts of the world where a large portion of the population hasn’t gone hungry in a very long time.
I’m giving myself a little shake today.
Just like I did in 2018 when I wrote the above words. Be grateful. Don’t piss away the feel-good moments in life. Tomorrow everything could change. You might think you deserve to have your best life, but the universe wasn’t designed with your happiness in mind. If you have a full belly and warm bed, you’ve hit the jackpot.
So, take note lest you look back on the good old bad old days and wish you’d appreciated your good luck a lot more. Happy New Year!
Teresa is an author, world traveler, and professional myth buster. You can find her books on Amazon.
