Dumpster fire … that is what I have heard most to describe 2020, our world.
It seems like either the world is coming to an end or the journalists and reporters are so hyped up on bad news that they can deliver nothing else to us.
What is the antidote, the cure for everything that is so … 2020?
gratitude is the antidote
It may seem so simplistic, but giving thanks, being appreciative, not only are nice things to do, but they are also actions that change our brains. Odd as it may sound the more gratitude we practice in our lives, the more positive our thoughts become.
This would be the real life, there are studies with evidence behind them, working out of a biblical proverb:
“as a woman/man thinks, so is she/he”
Proverbs 23:7
In Canada this weekend we celebrate Thanksgiving. We decorate with pumpkins and colored leaves, gather with family and friends (or not … thanks Coronavirus), we roast a turkey, we wear our stretchy pants. But it is more than just a long weekend, for it is also an opportunity to be thankful in our thoughts, our actions and our words.
It’s the perfect opportunity to make eye contact with someone and say the words, “I am thankful for you,” or give someone a gift and just say, I was thinking fondly of you and wanted to show you I care, or write a letter, an email a note and just say I am thankful for you.
Just last week I had the opportunity to be on the receiving end of a gift from a stranger. When I approached the drive through window to pay for my steeped tea, the person working there said that the previous person had paid the $1.62 for my tea. I was shocked, speechless. Honestly, the way I felt was as if the cost paid was much, much more. I think it was because it was unexpected, undeserved. All I could do was feel the gratitude.
I just wish I had thought to pay it forward, covering the cost of the next person’s order, to keep the gratitude flowing. But … hindsight is 20/20.
As gratitude realigns our mind to focus on the positive, I hope that we might be able to respond to the negatives of 2020 with gratitude, offering thanks for who and what we have in our lives, rather than adding more fuel to the dumpster fire that is currently burning up the good in our minds, our world.
Happy thanksgiving to you, reader. I want you to know that, though I may not know you, I am thankful that you have taken the time to read my ramblings as I wander and wonder.
itsawonderfilledlife 