11.02.2011

Thank Thanking

The second day of November is upon us and already, it is almost used up until next year...slipping away as the moon appears for another night's show.  November brings with it the official switch to the next season and the start of the holiday festivities and the days off from school and the pumpkin pie and the feeling of wanting to hunker down in a quilt.  And of course, Thanksgiving comes in November and being thankful has been on my mind.  Like an itch that needs to be scratched.  

What if you only had today what you thanked God for yesterday.  It keeps at me.  

But I think it is more than an approaching holiday causing my thanking awareness.  I think it is more about growing to be content with what I have.  Being a go-go-go person makes me feel the pull to always be on the look out for what is next.  What is on the list to accomplish and check off.  But when I start rolling like that, I miss the small.  The in-betweens.  I miss what I already have.  I forget to be thankful for what is present in my life.  

As with happiness, I am wondering if being thankful needs to become a mindful activity.  One I consciously decide to feel.  To choose finding the thank in my life.  Because I've said it a million times before...when I seek happy, I tend to find happy.  I find it in the small.  The in-betweens.  

Maybe thanking is like happy-ing.  Become aware and it follows you.  Starts to feel like it was always there.

And yes, life is not always unicorns and rainbows.  I get that.  There are times when I feel like the very last thing I want to do is be thankful for what is happening.  But the more I concentrate on finding the happy or the silver lining of the clouds in those not so unicorn-y situations, the more they tend to dissipate.  Almost as if they didn't exist in the first place.

Unicorns and rainbows.  I believe in them.  I believe in finding happy in the little.  And I suppose finding those happies and recognizing them is, in a sense, my way of being thankful.  Because noticing and acknowledging are the first steps to thanking.  But I am working on becoming more conscious about feeling truly grateful for what is already in my life, instead of constantly being on the hunt for the next item to check off or the the next place to go or the next person to meet or the next, the next, the next.  Time for me to settle down, calm down, and do some thanking.     

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