December 10
My life is a series of unfoldings--incidents and occasions, agreeable or distressing. Each day is full of them, hour by hour, and this makes it difficult for me to take a detached view of all that is happening. I'm too close.
If these occurrences were like so many pieces of merchandise--groceries or dry goods--I would see them clearly, good and bad. Looking at the incidents of my life in this way, I might be astonished to discover that the good far outweigh the bad. And yet I concentrate so heavily on my trials and burdens that I hardly give a thought to relishing the pleasant and satisfying things that happen each day.
This noticing is an acute awareness of our surroundings and what takes place in them. It can be cultivated, like watching a play or film.
Today's Reminder
If I learn to see everything with a fresh eye, I will find I have many reasons for contentment and gratitude. When I find myself being bogged down with negative thoughts, I will deliberately turn away from them.
"Let me observe, with new interest, even the commonplace things that happen in each new day."
The very first word I wrote in my journal upon reading that this morning was "WOW!" Too often, especially lately, I focus so much on negative thoughts, words, actions, whether I am the one delivering them or someone else is. There is so much beauty in the world, so much good, positive, optimistic, healing events, incidents, things, people, etc., and I have a choice on how to look at even those that most would call negative.
I am determined to make a daily, written, post-it-where-I-can-see-it gratitude list to erase these current tapes in my head so I can enjoy my life RIGHT THIS VERY MOMENT with positive, healing, caring, loving thoughts, words, and actions, and in turn, build an "armor" against times when I am more vulnerable and might be more likely to allow others to determine how I am going to see my days and myself.
Today, I have a choice. And just for today, I choose the good stuff.
-s-
1 comment:
It's easy to focus on the negative and take the positive for granted. Most of the time without even realizing we're doing it... Sometimes we do need to just stop and look at things from a different perspective. It's then that we realize just how fortunate we really are...and how grateful we are for being so fortunate.
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