With Gratitude.

photo from kerryskronicles.blogspot.com

Yesterday, in yoga class, the teacher talked about gratitude on and off the mat. Thankfulness for all the ways our body can move. For how the universe sustains us. For the many things we take for granted or forget about when things fail to go according to plan.

There I was, frustrated and struggling through a vinyasa, my mind on the fact that I haven't been able to put weight on my wrists for these last five months. My yoga practice and the many things I want to do have been limited. No working in the garden. No arm-strengthening. No down dog. Tough to love on the cat. Upsetting and annoying, yes. But as she spoke, how could my awareness not be drawn to the two legs supporting me? To the warm home I had to return to? The clean water? The good food and sustenance?

Odd that in this American culture, we officially designate only a day to this. What about the rest of the year? Why wasn't gratitude top of my mind in yoga class? Driving in my car? Having lunch with a friend?

The catch-22 is: Our lives are so abundant that our inconveniences and disappointments take center stage. With all of our basic needs met, there's nothing left to wish better. That's how good most of us have it. Which is great. Except it means it can sometimes take seeing someone far worse off to evoke gratitude. And gratitude...is an unmatched feeling. When it washes over us, it invites the sunshine in like nothing else. Suddenly:

Awe.  
Wonder. 
Amazement. 
Contentment.
The desire to hold dear and tight.
Life is good.

“We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”
 — Thornton Wilder

So how to get that feeling more and more? Cultivate. Gratitude is observance and mindset and action, which means it starts with looking around. Noticing others' struggles. How they live. How much they live with. Mindset. Feel the richness of what you have. If it meets your needs, dare to let it be enough. Know someone is living with more and someone is living with far less. Act. Volunteer. Step forward. Stand up. Do the right thing. Gratitude is, perhaps, as much about what we are able to give as it is being thankful about what we receive.

I wish each of you, American or not, a wonderful day of thanks tomorrow. But, remember, long after the turkey is gone or the sun sets: Gratitude doesn't live in a November day; it lives in the grand scheme of things. In being happy with what we have. What is offered to us. And the many ways the world provides for us. All year, every year.

“Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.” 
— Buddha