Gratefulness

So this year was start of the rest of my life. I put into action some things that I know but have not really had the ability to practice. Why can't I practice it you say? Well because so many times in my life I know something analytically... meaning I know it in my head, I know it is true and right, but I don't know it emotionally, meaning when push comes to shove I operate emotionally, not analytically. But anyway back to my learning.

I learned to be grateful.

This is a really hard thing to do. Being grateful is the key to a good attitude. Whenever I am feeling mean or spiteful or even downright disgusted I turn to gratefulness. In the past I would just be mean or spiteful or downright disgusted and it would be a downward spiral into being pissy or mad or ornery or just admit it, bitchiness. It could last for hours or sometimes the whole day. At this point in my life I always reset when I go to sleep, just like a computer. But being grateful is a whole new strategy. I started by just looking around me and finding those things in my immediate area that I am grateful for. For example, right now I am in my computer room. I am so grateful that I have a computer room, and a computer, and such an awesome computer. I am grateful for all my favorite music that I have playing right now on my computer. I love the skylight that I put in the computer room, oh and I am so grateful for the big printer machine we bought a few years ago, it will be our livelihood when we retire, I see the telescope I bought for Extremo this Christmas and am grateful for the wonderful year of work he had... you see how it works? It just snowballs and all of a sudden I am in a wonderful place full of wonderful things and wonderful people (if they were awake.)

I spend my drive to work every morning being grateful. By the time I get to work I am in a great mood. This gratefulness has had another unexpected result. I find myself appreciating all the things that I have never before noticed in my life, the little things that make a world: the trees, the streets, the lights, the trains, the hills, the clouds, the rain. I live in a wonderful world, with wonderful people and have a wonderful life.

I hope you all do, as well.