Gratitude doesn’t always come easy, and a diligent spirit of Thanks-Living is often an even greater challenge. Between the chaos of life in general and the heartache of almost 2 years of COVID, it’s difficult to feel anything but overwhelmed. Picking up the pieces and moving forward is more difficult than it’s ever been.
I’ve been reminding myself of the truth that when everything around us is falling apart, it’s okay to need a little help uncovering all the good that remains. When so much of life is filled with uncertainty and turmoil, it’s okay to need a shift in perspective to lift our eyes and heart toward hope. In even the direst of circumstances, hope is unearthed in the soil of gratitude.
~When we’ve tightened our belt and there’s just not enough money to pay the bills
~The job we depended on is suddenly gone
~What was a secure roof over our head gives way to the struggle to stay afloat
~The one person we vowed to love a lifetime walks out on us
~The child we poured our heart and soul into raising leaves us wondering where we went wrong
~When we’ve lost more than any one person should ever lose
Life is hard, and it’s impossible to escape the struggle. Yet somehow, the resiliency of hope is always present and available – even in the darkest of days. It peeks through the simplest and most ordinary of moments. When our hearts are bare and ready, and the faintest glimmer of gratitude finds its way in to gently wash over the splinters of pain and loss and disappointment.
We feel their grip loosen, our heart finds relief. For a split second, we touch hope. And it’s enough to carry us a little further. It’s enough to keep us looking for more, and in time our heart is realigned and tuned toward gratitude because hope thrives in the space of even the smallest gratitude.
There’s value in practicing this moment-by-moment gratitude. It keeps us taking one more breath and one more step. When there is so much we wish we could change, gratitude soothes our yearning and sheds light on the gifts still in front of us so we can exhale and feel our hearts expand with each new breath.
Now more than ever, when so much has been lost, there is immense, life-giving value in practicing gratitude for more than one day in the calendar year. Tomorrow has never been more in need of gratitude to pave the way toward Hope. Meaning. Value. Abundance.
In all of life:
“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity…Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” ~ Melodie Beattie
That’s why I’m inviting you to join me…
Join me for a guided journey to actively seek gratitude, not just for a day but for a month. I’m inviting you to make it an intention to fill your life with goodness again. To actively and diligently seek it out. Why? Because life changes when we cultivate gratitude in the ordinary. Life becomes richer with meaning and value when we participate in the gift each moment has to offer. Abundance becomes tangible in the intangible, making way for the healing waters to flow through the heartache and pain…because we said yes to now, to the present, and all it holds for us.
[bctt tweet=”“…life change comes when we receive life with thanks and ask for nothing to change.” Ann Voskamp” username=”CrystalTwaddell”]
Cultivating thanks-living is all about slowing down to be present in the moment without rushing to the next. It’s actively saying “Yes” to the simple beauty held within our day. And it’s intentionally making it a priority to cherish and embrace what we might otherwise miss or take for granted.
“It’s not just another day. It’s the one day that has been given to you…Today. It’s given to you as a gift. It’s the only gift that you have right now. And the only appropriate response is gratefulness.
If you do nothing else but to cultivate that response through the great gift that this unique day is. If you learn to respond as if it were the first day of your life and the very last day, then you will have spent this day very well.”
[bctt tweet=”Thanks-Living is choosing to silence the screams of the important and open our ears to the whispers of the sacred.” username=”CrystalTwaddell”]
Let’s choose to MARVEL at the mundane. CHASE after the ordinary. BREATHE IN the singular moments sprinkled throughout our day and occupy them fully. Let’s shift our perspective to see the tangible in the intangible. And let’s COMMIT to experiencing the wonder and reverence of one single day – for 30 days.
Because each new day holds more gifts than we can imagine…
when we choose to intentionally open our hands and hearts to HOPE.
Download 30 Reasons for Thanks-Living in the Soul-Hope Cafe!
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