I feel like, and thankfully so perhaps, that we live in a society of “grateful” people. The thing is, do we reaaalllly know what we are talking about when we use that word? I mean not to jump the gun, I’m sure many do, but I can only share with you my opinion. Are we really that grateful after all?
So you see, I have always been very grateful for what I have been given in life. There has been a lot of good, and truthfully, a lot of bad. I have never for one moment though thought I had any reason to be anything other than grateful. But it wasn’t until I called it to action did I see how completely and utterly transformative it can be and how different it is than just a word. Being thankful and having gratefulness gets swept under the rug like a blanket of niceties making us feel socially acceptable for our stances.
I was actually just completely taken off guard when I decided I’d write something on this and I looked at the definition of Gratitude and it got me thinking…How is it so, that a word of action is described as a noun?! No More. Lets Verb the shit out of this. It is not until we move into this feeling or quality in action that we can not only share such messages, but also, also receive!
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the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.“she expressed her gratitude to the committee for their support”
synonyms: gratefulness, thankfulness, thanks, appreciation, indebtedness; recognition,
So I dig a little deeper. The word gratitude, derived from the latin word gratia, grace or graciousness. Some of my favourite words. I’ve come to an interesting relationship with grace. You see through my struggles, some of you knew, some of you assumed, and some not a clue, I had people come up to me and say that I am handling it “all” with such “grace”. Complete strangers, family, professionals. It was never really a word I connected myself with anymore. As a former ballet dancer I was the epitome of grace, but no more, especially in such a state as I was in. Especially. And yet, the word just kept coming back, and back. And I held onto it as a security blanket. clinging to it for what reason I still don’t know why. Courage, maybe? I think it’s a part of it. What could others see that I was not able to? I’m not sure that even at that time I made the connection between the words gratitude and grace. But it wouldn’t be long before I did.
On one day, perhaps the last day, or so how it seemed to be going, I downloaded an itunes app, it recorded your daily gratitude entries. And on that day my first entry read… I’m grateful for my husband, I’m breathing and a few other things. And so the beat goes on… or at least the heartbeat did. Gratefully 😉
I have now since for some time continued with daily written things I’m grateful for, and the thing is, some are truly and wonderfully obscure. Some are horrendous and painful and some simple and sweet. No matter what they are though, my simple act of thanks, gives me back so much more than I could ever guess. Peace, non attachment, appreciation, meditation, space, freedom, content and beauty in abso fucking lutely anything… even the dissolve, the rebuild and all the space in between the storm and the settlement. That breath thats more a sigh than it is a necessity.
Not too long ago, as I often do in a fit of inspiration, I went for more tattoo’s. I got Dan, written on my neck, where I breathe, and I got grace written across my hand. The hand that feeds. With every motion a forever a reminder of the gift of grace and health and now that I’m on this path how serendiptious…with food. It all circled back to that day. Even now I just made that connection, 
me with so much gratitude i could even punch you with it 😉
Gratitude is not a noun, it is a verb. It moves. It moves us spiritually and physically. It grants us permission to talk to strangers. Step outside of our circus and truly, feel the rain or the sun.
I can tell you the countless studies that have been done on grattitude and the daily ritual, like increased happiness, immune function, cognitive performance, and overall wellbeing from Harvard and Berkeley, but the truth is in the task. Do it, reach out and touch faith. Gratitude is my religion. Accepting members today. Its nuthin but a G thing…
peace
oh and if you get stuck, there is always now. You can always be grateful for this very moment. The more you do, the more it flows.
simple act of thanks, gives me back so much more than I could ever guess. Peace, non attachment, appreciation, meditation, space, freedom, content and beauty in abso fucking lutely anything… even the dissolve, the rebuild and all the space in between the storm and the settlement. That breath thats more a sigh than it is a necessity.
This is amazing. Thank you for sharing. ?
Thank YOU for reading!! It truly means so much to me and I’m so glad it resonated with you in some way. Grateful for this message 😉 Happy Sunday.