THANKFULNESS

We live in a prickly world.  It seems we are inundated with bad news: wars, famines, Mother Nature's furies, political upheaval, seemingly intractable problems to solve on all fronts -- from climate change and gun control to my computer software crashing just as I was ready to hit "send" on a photo book I'd created for my granddaughter.  From the overwhelming to the merely annoying, life can sometimes feel like running up against one obstacle after another.

And yet, tomorrow is the American holiday of Thanksgiving, and we are called to thankfulness.

It doesn't take me long to find an "attitude of gratitude", as Karen encourages us to do in class, but I have to admit there is a short pause as I mentally discard all the trouble spots in my life and zero in on thankfulness.

My husband and I facilitate a monthly sharing circle of twelve people who come together to socialize and share from the heart in a rare gathering of trust and intimacy built up over the past three years of building this intentional community of friendship.  We generally try to come up with a process of getting below the surface and finding insight into who we are and why we respond as we do to our lives and to those around us.

Last week we met and with thankfulness as a theme, we led the group in an exercise of going around the circle to share a recent challenge or disappointment -- something that didn't go as expected.  From national and local political issues to bum knees and family troubles,  each person in the group shared their feelings of being let down.

The next round around the circle we encouraged a deeper dive.  In spite of that disappointment, was there a place of gratitude around what what happening?  I am no Pollyanna.  I HATE the "it could be worse"/"put on a happy face" response to very real events and feelings.  But I also find no solace in wallowing in and perseverating on a challenge indefinitely.  That place of stuck-ness and self-pity does not move me forward.

My sharing was about troubles I've had with my eyesight recently -- unable to read for any length of time; squinting at the computer screen; seemingly cloudier vision in one eye; night driving becoming more challenging... What the heck?  A trip to the Opthamalogist revealed that I have a growing cataract in my left eye.  WHAT?  Isn't that what my grandmother had when she was old?  I was beyond disappointed with this diagnosis.

I lamented for a couple of days, worried and sad.  Then I started to realize: I was able to get a same-day appointment, insurance covered all but the co-pay; the doctor and the technician were skilled, friendly, and encouraging; the array of technologically sophisticated machinery employed to make a thorough and accurate diagnosis was pretty amazing; there is a procedure I can have done that will help me.  I found great gratitude for all of these things.  I still don't like what I'm experiencing, still don't want this thing happening, but grateful nonetheless to live in a time and place where this is not the beginning of blindness.

What would it be like to train our brains to be ever mindful of the gratitude that lies beneath each setback?  To see the everyday goodness and wonder of life?  To truly cultivate that "attitude of gratitude"?

We have that opportunity at all times, but maybe the baby step is to show up to yoga class at every visit grateful for the physical and emotional warmth of the studio, the beautiful art that surrounds us, the skilled and smiling teachers who lead us to health, the students next to us who are experiencing their own pain and challenge but who show up to move, breathe, and find solace together in a time of grateful awareness within the Yoga Circle community.

May your day of Thanksgiving be a blessing....and may you find thankfulness in every single day. ©

Namaste, donnajurene

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