Gratitude and Platitude

Crisp, fresh air alternating with wind and rain this time of year are so refreshing for me. More and cozier clothes, and trysts with my heater bring such pleasure. More connections with friends and family over meals and conversation feel welcome after the busyness of summer.

This is also the time of year where some of us find our histories knocking on our doors in ways that remind us that indeed, there are still more layers of work to be done huddling in the nooks and crannies of our bodies and minds. Time of contemplation and solitude, exploring nature, conversations with friends and confidants accompany  the growing winter darkness.  I am grateful for it all.

Coming on the heels of Thanksgiving last week, my writing today is still infused with a deepening sense of gratitude for my life, and in a nice twist, for gratitude itself. Long have I been acerbically impatient with platitudes of the new age, what with affirmations, the secret, and gratitudes. But something for me in the last few years and in the last few months in particular have brought me into learning that there is more to life than shadow work. Exploring where my resistances to what is unseen has been powerful in my transformation, and that of my clients. Gratitude has been unveiling itself as a tool that I can choose intentionally to conjure forth, and look at what is, and what is becoming, with warmth and wonder, and an open heart, that weaves a web of warm fuzzies that my mind can nestle into, get cozy, and relax.

With this, I can acknowledge where I was intolerant of the platitudes of the holidays. Expressing our gratitudes one day, and then rushing off to fight crowds and traffic to get the best prices on more things seems to have become  cultural mask, an attempt to be nice-not-naughty at Thanksgiving, so that Santa will bring us all we hunger for…

Learning how to intentionally bring forth my attention to what is through my gratitude is becoming my favorite new tool for life. I can see where my tendencies to focus on what isn’t quite right is steering my attention and my life, acknowledge where there is struggle or friction, but more and more not lose sight  of the wonder of life, and my shining gratitude for each moment as it is.