Friday, November 22, 2013
Day Twenty-Two
In yesterday’s practice, we were reminded to be aware of and connected to the gifts in our lives – a simple foundation for understanding and expressing gratitude.
Of course, sometimes that awareness is the farthest thing from our minds. Today’s song is all about that feeling – being crushed, worn out, grasping for hope. Yet it is precisely for moments like these that we share in the practice of gratitude.
Gratitude is a resource we can draw on in times of brokenness – like a muscle we can build and flex. It’s a way of looking at the world that improves our resilience, reminding us to always seek out those Amazing Grace gifts. Gratitude helps us approach each experience, good or bad, as one that holds seeds for a new opportunity in our lives.
It’s also a way for us to take power back in those broken moments – not to deny or ignore the pain, but to reassert the power of our spirit, and make the brokenness work for us. We can learn to see even the brokenness in our lives as one piece of our whole selves – a piece for which we are grateful, because it opens up new avenues of connection to others, and reminds us of our limits, and our interdependence.
We’re going to start to do a bit of heavy lifting with those gratitude muscles today. Reflect, in your journal or in the comments below, on an area of brokenness in your life – a place where you are tired and worn. How might gratitude help you to mend and heal this broken place? How might you begin to actually look upon your brokenness with gratitude?
- Lee
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Talk about a reading a paragraph that went straight to my heart. Wow.
ReplyDelete"It’s also a way for us to take power back in those broken moments – not to deny or ignore the pain, but to reassert the power of our spirit, and make the brokenness work for us. We can learn to see even the brokenness in our lives as one piece of our whole selves – a piece for which we are grateful, because it opens up new avenues of connection to others, and reminds us of our limits, and our interdependence."
I would also add that reflecting on that broken part of my life from time-to-time keeps me whole, helps me continue to accept that those broken pieces have a place in my heart. Those broken pieces even drove me for awhile, quite awhile, and that journey was necessary in the healing. Necessary in finding forgiveness while not forgetting. Necessary in finding the love that was hidden in the shattered glass.
This day, I am grateful for the outcomes. I am grateful that I could draw strength from the deep and abiding love at the core of the messiness. I am grateful for the strong bond I share with my brothers. I sometimes believe our relationship is somehow deeper and different than most siblings. I am grateful I can care for my aging mother with a loving heart. I am grateful my heart broke open in forgiveness. I am grateful I can love my own children wholly. I am grateful I can love my life partner wholly.
And, strangely enough, I can find some gratitude for those circumstances way beyond my control all those years (decades) ago that played, over time, a strong role in shaping me.
Becky, thank you for sharing this. Sending you love. :)
DeleteI am reminded today of the power of gratitude in times of brokenness. I've learned that a first year student where I work who went to the hospital with stomach pain has just been told that she has lukemia. She is an international student from China, with no family or established support system here outside of the school. I have been amazed by her spirit, and particularly by her ability to find gratitude in her situation. She said that she feels grateful that this happened here and now because she believes if it had happened while she was in China that she probably would have died because the medical care would not be as good. Being witness to her gratitude has given me a renewed faith in its power.. While this is not my own story of brokenness, being able to share her want and need for hope and her gratitude has felt like a tremendous gift.
ReplyDeleteI have a problem in my marriage... at least, it's a problem in that there's something missing that one of us wants back and one of us knows it's gone for good. It's too much and too hard to write about it, but tonight I will reflect on it deeply and maybe even talk with my husband about it a little and above all else, I will be grateful that despite this big and important problem, John and I still love each other completely and with a soul balancing strength. I am so damn lucky to be able to have a a big problem in my marriage AND still know that my marriage is perfectly stable, fully sustaining, and very, very happy.
ReplyDeletePretty good post.I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts.
ReplyDeleteGratitude