Blessed & Grateful

Gratitude is more than a feeling…

It’s a way of life.

It is the ‘forgotten factor’ in happiness research, according to some.

While gratitude is an emotion expressing appreciation for what one has, studies have shown that gratitude can be cultivated, nurtured and increase levels of happiness and well-being.

Think about this for a moment if you will…

Like attracts like.

What we focus on grows.

By living in a state of gratitude we not only demonstrate how deeply we appreciate what we ‘have’ – we allow the possibility of receiving so much more.

My mother, Leah, who is with me in spirit, was and remains one of my greatest teachers.  As a young woman, she dreamt of having many children; three, four, five, or more… but life had other plans.  While a bout with cancer at the age of 35 may have robbed her of her dreams, it did not steal her life – for which she was very grateful.  Filled with gratitude and the desire to share her life with many children, she and my Dad decided to become foster parents.  For over two decades our home was filled with children of all ages (though she was fond of the newborns – “the more the merrier”) and overflowed with gratefulness.  The gratefulness fed her happiness and attracted more love in her life.  It’s as if she became whole again.  My parents dwelled within a state of gratitude, which I believe created the opportunity for a miracle to occur.  Our first foster child, Bob, had been with us for two years and was about to be taken away and placed elsewhere for adoption, as it was considered taboo for foster parents to adopt a foster child back in the early 1960’s.  We were granted permission to adopt and the rest is history.

I do believe in miracles and I further believe our mindset cultivate miracles.  If you believe it, you receive it.  Did my parents teach through example and lifestyle or are their beliefs passed down through the generations?  Their blood, after all, runs through my veins.

Let me tell you what I’ve learned over the years and now practice on a daily basis…

• It’s easier and far more productive to give thanks for what you have, rather than begrudge what you don’t.

• There is truth to the expression believe it and receive it.  The combination of positive thinking and deep faith yields remarkable results.

• Maintaining a daily gratitude journal and in addition to giving thanks for life’s simple pleasures, giving thanks for that which you would like to manifest, is like placing an order with the universe.

• Fake it till you make it worked in recovery and will work with gratitude.  Even if you can’t think of one thing for which you are grateful – fake it!  Make it up!  Write it down every day and watch the magic begin to happen.

• Give generously to others.  Others may be a person or an animal.  Your generosity may include the giving of your time, your patience, your compassion, your talent.  A kind word or deed, or thought.  Yes, a kind thought will also work wonders.

• Look around you.  What do you see, feel, hear, smell, taste?  There is so much for which we can be grateful.   Pause and reflect.  You’ll begin to feel like a million bucks!

• And to paraphrase Cole Porter’s song, Count Your Blessings; When you’re worried and you can’t sleep, count your blessings instead of sheep.

Photo:  West Peabody, Thanksgiving, 1966.  My mother, Leah, surrounded by all her children.   (From left to right, Wanda, my brother John, Wanda’s brother Kevin, my mother holding Joey,  my brother Chip, Wanda and Kevin’s brother Jimmy,  my brother Bob, Elizabeth and yours truly holding Michael.)   Missing from the photo, the photgrapher, my Dad, Woody.