Gratitude is, of course, the central theme of the Thanksgiving holiday tomorrow. Many of us make lists of what we are grateful for – our families, our health, the food on our tables. Gratitude for the blessings in our lives comes easily into our hearts.
But what about the things that we are not grateful for – not really, not if we’re completely honest with ourselves? What about chronic illness, or the painful loss of a job or relationship or financial abundance? What about the people we can’t stand, the annoying co-worker or demanding boss or inconsiderate neighbor? What about the experiences that we wish we hadn’t had, the tough circumstances we wish we could have avoided?
The greater challenge this holiday, perhaps, is summoning gratitude for what we don’t really want in our lives. And yet, the most difficult situations we attract often serve as our most diligent, persistent teachers. They are the lessons we did not pay attention to until they became impossible to ignore, the habits and patterns left unexamined until life knocked us over the head with its big stick. Often, they are the situations that gift us, painfully yet effectively, with our greatest growth and expansion.
In this season of gratitude, can we open our hearts to that for which we are not yet grateful? Can we be thankful for everything that we’ve attracted into our lives, knowing that everything has a purpose, even if that purpose remains yet to be revealed?
By opening our hearts in gratitude to ALL of our experiences, we practice self-acceptance, wholeness and integration of everything we’ve created and attracted so far. And that is indeed something to be grateful for! This is practicing radical gratitude – thanking ourselves unconditionally for the experience we have created, knowing that all is in our highest good.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Andrea
P.S. For those of you who are wondering – I am absolutely committed to taking a 24-hour break from my 30-day detox and cleansing program tomorrow! Yes, there will even be pie …
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you Andrea!
I’m grateful for all your great wisdom and sharing your beautiful gift with us.
Much joy and love to you this Thanksgiving.
Good for you about taking the fast break — I was wondering what/how you were going to do that for Thanksgiving!!
This post is definitely something I am trying to work on. Thanks for writing so eloquently about it!
Brenda
Hi Andrea,
Great Blog! Oh! there has been so many life expierences that at the time they happened I was very disapointed and the farthest thought in my mind was to be gratful for but looking back there is not one life expierence that has happened that I would want to change – they were all blessings!
Now I know that the situations that I can quickly judge as bad are the situations that I need to be gratful for.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Tim
Admittedly it can be quite difficult to practice gratitude when things are not going well in our lives. It helps to be reminded that we have at many times live through some of our worst traumas!! Indeed, these tests are our real teachers! So let’s be thankful that we have emerged much stronger people because of them.
Here’s wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving!! I’m glad to know that you are intending to have a good time with the pie!
Thought I would add this great quote: “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity…. It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
— Melodie Beattie
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Andrea,
So well said! As always, you are right on target with a deeper understanding of the world around us. This adds layers to the practice of gratitude that cannot help but bring wholeness.
Thank you Andrea. You rock!
Linda
Ironically, my mother and I had this very conversation last night. My oldest son is back living at home and is once again unemployed. Instead of seriously looking for work, he chooses to donate plasma twice a week to have a little money in his pocket. There are SO MANY negatives to this situation, it’s driving all of us around him just a little bit crazy. She asked me how I coped with it and I told her I look for the positives, though few and far between they appear to be. She asked what I came up with and I said, “Well, mom…despite his lifestyle, by donating plasma, I know he’s not HIV positive. They wouldn’t let him donate if he was. I take comfort in that.”
She told me I’m stretching. I think I’m practicing radical gratitude. And you know what? For me, part of what makes radical gratitude radical is that others have a hard time calling it gratitude.
I know, by my own experiences, that there is a purpose in this phase of his life. (Though I’ll readily admit I’m looking forward to this phase being done! Soon!)
Happy Thanksgiving, Andrea. Knowing you is definitely on my list of reasons for gratitude today.
Yes, gratitude, at any level, for any bit of blessing, is still gratitude. (I love the “Plasma Theory”)
I currently have a son serving in Iraq; I receive emails from him on a weekly basis, I am grateful to know he is alive.
I have a brother who is quite ill; I am grateful each time he answers the phone.
I recently moved from a unhealthy relationship; I am grateful to have a roof over my head.
My list goes on and on……. and each day, I gain a deeper level of understanding of how really important that unhealthy relationship was, how my brother’s illness has allowed him to spend more time with family, how my son being away overseas has created a deeper need to communicate with mum.
Every bit of blessing……. Let us notice them all!!
Thanks Andrea…. and all who share here……..Blessings!!
Hi Andrea,
What a wonderful message you’re sharing here. It’s so easy to forget that some of our best learning moments come from the “difficulties” we have in life. And, that is something for which to be thankful for!
Thank you, Andrea – for reminding us that even in the “bad” there is good…