Every morning, as part of my quest for conscious living, I give thanks that I’ve woken up. It’s a good Jewish thing to do. According to paternal accounts my blood is one-quarter to one-eighths Jewish, but this is just a detail that gets thrown around when we’re talking about the family tree. I learned about the daily prayer of gratitude from a Rabbi I met at the yoga studio in Los Angeles. My spiritual path has followed that of a helix, as twisted as my blood lines.
Giving thanks is a big part of many spiritual practices and an even greater number of self-help books. It’s a good thing to do. People have published books comprised completely of gratitude lists. The lists permeate the blogosphere. Whenever I try to list things I”m grateful for I feel pressure to be heartfelt and hallmark-y. Remember the beautiful things! That’s why I gravitated to the generic morning thanks. I’m grateful for the do-over.
Despite my gratitude, there are some days I’m reluctant to start. Like today. So today I am thankful for something specific, something simple, like the fact that I had the good fortune to sleep in this Monday. The thanks begat more thanks when I discovered the dog had shit in the house but since I wasn’t the first up I didn’t have to clean it. Sometimes it’s the little things, but I’m thankful for all of it.
1 Comment
positivityprjct · May 16, 2012 at 2:50 AM
Sometimes I forget to be thankful that I’m able to sleep in occasionally, and experience guilt about doing it. I have a gratitude rock in my purse, maybe I should bring it out a little more often.