Same day, same shirt, different Tie o’ the Day. This morning’s post got me in the hairs mood, so I’ve been tinkering around with my mop, on-and-off, throughout the day. I don’t usually give much thought to my head hairs, but I suppose the thought of chopping off my current crop has made me a bit nostalgic. I might even miss the hellish hairs when they’re gone. Thus, me and my head hairs had a playdate today, in honor of my hairs’ service. I can appreciate how hard they have worked to amuse us all for an entire year. I am a grateful gal. I can find a blessing to be thankful for just about anywhere I am.
Gratitude is a skill. It doesn’t always come from out of nowhere as some huge, soul-stirring feeling. We have to practice our gratitude. We have to actually cultivate a grateful attitude. Maybe you don’t have to work on it, but I do sometimes. When I’m in a “poor-me” mood, I look around and can’t find one darn thing worthy of my gratitude. (Seriously, we all do it on occasion.) That means I’m out of practice. It means I haven’t been flexing my gratitude enough. My thankfulness has lost its muscle tone.
Fortunately, I catch myself pretty early in the process. And when I do catch myself, I give my gratitude a good work-out by looking around wherever I am and finding something to be grateful for–in the stupidest, most insignificant object I can see. Right now, for example, I’m looking around and I can see a small pile of dirty laundry on the floor. It’s mostly dog blankets, and they are stinky. And one blanket has dog spit-up and dog urp on it. What’s to be thankful for about a pile of yucky dog blankets?
First, the dog blankets are here because we have Skitter, and I’m grateful as heck for her. Second, Suzanne made the blankets, and I am certainly thankful for that. Third, I appreciate that Skitter’s spit-up and urp were caught by one of her blankets instead of by the leather couch. Fourth, I’m grateful we have a washer and dryer to deal with Skitter’s mess. I could continue, but I won’t. You get the idea.
Practicing the gratitude attitude means we have to learn how to see what’s been given to us, but isn’t always visible. For example, throughout my TMS treatments, many of y’all have expressed concern and support. There have even been some prayers sent my way. Similar things happened with my surgery last summer. None of this caring has been lost on me. I have heard it, read it, felt it. It is mostly invisible, but it exists. And I am grateful for it all.
Practicing gratitude also means we have to learn to re-see things that are so visible we tend to not notice them anymore– like the people in our families. They are so present we start treating them like they’re part of the furniture. We just expect them to be there– in their usual places, doing their usual things. And they are the ones we should most appreciate.
So do that. Go be grateful to someone right now. I, on the other hand, am going upstairs to do Skitter’s laundry– knowing she won’t even say THANKS.