Monday, October 30, 2017

Getting Back to Grateful

Brene Brown, a qualitative researcher whose work I admire for many reasons, reminded me recently about gratitude. She clarifies that the practice of gratitude supports us to be joyful as we move through this broken world. I do know this; it's my default setting. But when I heard her speak to it again, I realized that I have kinda fallen out of that practice lately.

Oh, it's been one of those seasons. I feel like I've spent much of the last year or so being challenged in pretty much every arena--personal, professional, spiritual... a call to step up my courage, patience, empathy, forgiveness, trust, grace, bravery, daring, commitment, boundaries, persistence, resilience...

In all the hard work,* I have to admit, my joy has fallen a little flat.

I'm not exactly walking around ungrateful, per se. I just... it's hard to feel gratitude when you're trying to muster courage. When your heart is hurting. When you're focused on living in your integrity.  When you're trying something new. I've been increasingly aware of how my gratitude for this wide and wonderful world has become a bit overshadowed by stronger feelings I've been leaning into and exploring.

So I picked up a book from the library that's been sitting on my to-read list for ages--sometimes hearing another's perspective revitalizes us to shift our own--and I also thought I would try a gratitude challenge throughout the next month. Re-fuel, so to speak. Get back to my default setting.

Not surprisingly, I'm approaching this challenge with photography; it has always been a way to capture life around me to spark awe, wonder, delight and gratitude in myself and those with whom I share my images.

So here we go.

Do you need a practice-of-gratitude challenge too? It doesn’t have to be in pictures. You don’t even have to follow the prompts I’m using. But if you’ve found yourself in a season of heart-work that has squished your joy a bit (or outright flattened it), feel free to come wander back to gratefulness with me. :)


"The secret is to never lose sight of the simple, everyday miracles in life.
Good food, literature, laughter, music, compelling conversation, nature, and art.
Look for them in every day, and even when it feels like your whole world is unravelling,
you will never be too far from a needle and thread." -- Beau Taplin




*Important work. Rich work. Necessary work. Just... sometimes also hard work.

1 comment:

Margaret said...

The other miracle? You/we are alive to enjoy all of those simple gifts.