The sky never stops amazing me. Growing up in Florida, it was actually hard to see the sky, towering pines everywhere, thick undergrowth, just a narrow strip of blue above the road. Maybe that is exactly why I notice it so much now that I live where the horizon runs forever. We tend to treasure most the thing we once had to strain to see.
Gratitude Is a Core Ingredient of Every Good Season
Today I am thinking about gratitude, and how necessary it actually is. Picture any moment in your life when you felt genuinely happy, at peace, like things were finally moving along well. I guarantee one of the core ingredients of that season was immense gratitude, whether you noticed it at the time or not. Happiness and thankfulness travel together so reliably that you can almost use one to manufacture the other.
So look around you. Really look. Look at your legs, which you probably regard with some quiet dissatisfaction. Now consider how reliable they are, how strong they must be to do everything you ask of them without complaint. Look at your hands and your fingers. No device ever invented has matched the power of the human hand. The sheer amount of information your hands alone can perceive is beyond measuring. You are carrying miracles around all day and calling them ordinary.
Thirty Miracles Within Arm's Reach
If you want to be happy, just look around and find the things that are miraculous. There are probably thirty miracles within arm's reach of you right now. And it is not only objects. Who did you talk to today? Who did you connect with, even a little? Who are you looking forward to seeing again? Those people are reasons to be thankful, opportunities for happiness, if you will only accept them as such.
But do we treat them that way? Do we recognize the power inside every human being? Do we consider the joy our circle has already brought us, including the joy brought by the very person we most recently fought with? Try this. Spend one hour thinking about all the good that person has done for you, with you, and to you, before the grudge ever set in. It will change the temperature of the whole relationship.
And when you are achy or sick, remember that your body is healing itself right now, without you lifting a finger or even understanding how. Just look. There is plenty to be thankful for. There is plenty to be amazed by. You do not have to manufacture any of it. It is already here. Just look.