(Practicing) Gratitude

 “It seems that gratitude without practice may be a little like faith without works – it’s not alive” Brene Brown from “The Gifts of Imperfection”

OK, I’ve used this one before, but come on, it’s Brene Brown, how can I possibly go wrong?

A new year, a new resolution….

No, as I’ve noted before, I’ve taken a page out of my dear friend Dave Carr’s book, and I don’t do resolutions, I do words that I want to focus on this year.  This year’s word is Gratitude. 

Over a year ago, I did a blog post about Practicing Gratitude, and it focused on our long journey of moving to Columbus, looking for a building, eventually buying property and breaking ground on a new building, and all of the difficulties along the way. 

You can focus on all of the difficulties along the way, or you can find the many reasons to be grateful for what you have.  I wish I could say I always do the latter, but then again, I’m human.  As I pointed out in that blog post though, it’s easy to fall into the trap of bitching about everything, and it oftentimes feels really good.  But eventually, it loses its appeal, and it doesn’t feel very good anymore.

But gratitude.  Gratitude never disappoints.  If you stop and enumerate, highlight those things you can be grateful for, it gives you such a great feeling inside.

And 2022 gave me so many things to be grateful for.  Sure, there were many difficulties and hurdles along the way, but also, many magical and uplifting moments.  Just to name a few:

• Laurel and I had our 40^th wedding anniversary, and we were able to share the moment on a weekend with our four children and their spouses.  We had family portraits done, and we had a wonderful weekend together.  I’m not sure how it could have been a better experience.
  
  
  
• I completed my 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training in the spring with seven wonderful people and two outstanding teachers.  This was one of the best moments in my life, and I couldn’t have asked for a  better group of people to share it with.  I will never forget any of them, and I will never forget this experience.

• We moved into our new building at work.  To give some perspective on this, Bobby Herring, who ran the building project, and I reflected on our journey.  We started it three years ago, looking at existing properties.  We kept getting turned down, or the properties were, to be kind, shitholes.  We started looking at land, and eventually WIKA bought some land for us to build a building on.  We started construction last fall, and we eventually finished in December.  Three years, a lot of ups and downs, but finally, we are in our new building. 
  

I could go on and on enumerating the many gifts I have to be grateful for in 2022, but I’ll leave it with these three snippets.  Did everything go right in each of these situations?  Oh heavens no!  I could tell you all of the things that went wrong, all of the pitfalls.  But again, what good does that do?  In the end, these were moments to celebrate, and to be grateful for. 

For 2023, I choose gratitude.  I choose to look for the good, the positive, those things to celebrate rather than those nagging moments that can lead to negativity and bitching.  If I succeed, 2023 will be an even better year than 2022, no matter what happens.