When I finished reading that brief post I realized that one of life's gifts is life itself. The process of living day into day makes remaining inert impossible. Eighteen months after that post, I am starting a new business, sharing a home with my adult daughter who is an everyday reminder of love, and thinking about how to improve the lives of those around me, as I improve my own.
Am I still angry and frightened? You bet. But, seeking gratitude helped me realize that who I am and what I have created stand for themselves against the sea of surrounding ugliness. Gratitude-seeking requires that we pull back and look at our lives through a lens that is simultaneously stripped of reactionary judgement and embracing of what is deeply personal. Gratitude-seeking allows us to view with fresh eyes the moments that make up our days and to reorder our hierarchy of importance.
So, while I am still disappointed by the swell of racism and nationalism that I see around me, I can acknowledge with compassion the frailties that define today's human experience. While I am still frightened by all of the people walking through the streets of my American city with their guns and their generalized fear of people who look like me, I am still breathing. While I worry about the rising tide and rapidly declining ice caps, I am still laughing, working, and dreaming.
I am grateful because living means not giving up. A Luta Continua! The struggle continues, not with others but within ourselves. May gratitude find your heart.
