grateful

The importance / forgetfulness of being grateful

Everybody is grateful, of course...

Grateful for being alive, for living a life, for eating, seeing, speaking, thinking, loving, being loved, etc, etc, etc…

I so often talk about being grateful, and how me and my friends and my fellow citizens and quite most of the western-type people are being so lucky in living the life that we do.

And then, 3 seconds later  

I  f o r g e t  !

A subtle but thorough DELETE is performed on my moment of gratitude and completeness and I go on with my so-called grateful and “lucky” life by complaining, being moody (of course for no apparent reason) and wishing on things or feelings or ideas that I am not even sure about. 

Then, something  w o n d e r f u l  happens again, like 

a phonecall from a friend, 

   a nice conversation, 

      a warm evening, 

         a melting brownie, 

            a child's laughter, 

               great sex, 

                  a sincere hug, 

                     a dive in fresh sea, 

                        a new pair of earrings, 

                           etc.

                              and I remind myself that  n o  n e  of these could have happened, and I could be blind, deaf, paralyzed, dying, or simply be living in Sudan and praying for 30 minutes of some safe sleep. How lovely not...

So, I need to,  n e e d   t o,  n e e d   t o  not be grateful when something good happens to me, 
cause not only this is easy, 
but it would be plain stupid not to.


So, my 1 and only New Year's Resolution is this:

Be grateful to begin with, and not as a response...

Be grateful at first, and then verify that what is happening is actually pretty nice!

Of course the curse of forgetfulness is always always there, 

so I have started doing little gratitude exercises, like reality checklists. 

For example:

* I stand by my bed when I wake up in the morning (typically I would rush to the bathroom) and feel the warm wooden floor under my naked toes. 

I realize the amazing feeling of balance I perform on all toes to stay standing. AFter all, I worked so hard for it when I was 9 months old!

* I close my eyes in the shower and stand still under running water.

I feel the luxury of having these still, safe minutes all to myself, without having to rush to anything. 

* I stop rushing when I realize my son enjoys not getting dressed up in the morning, and enjoy along the morning no-rush. 

* I appreciate the ability to enjoy! Nothing should make me rush this gift.

*I smile when I open my laptop to work, or surf, or blog, or just clean it. 

I realize I have a laptop, I have an internet connection to the entire world, I can afford to spend my time using it. 

...Such a long list I can make for every 10 minutes that go by..........

I know it all sounds very romantic and plain, but I know this is what I need to keep me enjoying life and also to 

keep me  g i v i n g  in life

I also really enjoy listening still to a song. 

Taking in the music, the melody, the voice, the feeling behind the voice, 

and the message behind the feeling...  

Like with this one:

Love, Alva