Gratitude -The Sweetner of Life

"If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough."
                    Meister Eckhart



As Mary Poppins knew a "spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down...in the most delightful way."  The refreshing taste of ice cold lemonade on a sweltering summer day provides testimonial to the power of a bit of sweetner to make the bitter palatable.  So what is life's sweetner?  What can change the bitter to bearable?  Gratitude.

According to Psychology Today, "gratitude is an emotion expressing appreciation for what one has - as opposed to say, a consumer-oriented emphasis on what one wants or needs - and is currently receiving a great deal of attention as a facet of positive psychology."  Perhaps, mom was right after all when she prompted us to say thank you.

Gratitude is the difference between contentment and "not enough."  Do you suffer from "not enoughness?"  You know the kind that is a gnawing emptiness inside that wakes you at night because its companion of "if only" has a list of things that if only you had, you would then be able to be _____.  We can all fill in the blank. 

Never before in the history of this country have Americans been more blessed materially but poorer in well being and spirit.  "Not enoughness" is a national epidemic from the titans of Wall Street to the post Thanksgiving shoppers who will trample anyone who stands in their way to acquire whatever happens to be the golden goose of happiness that holiday season.  SERIOUSLY?!?. 

Collectively and individually, we need to get a grip.  Like how much is enough?  How much do we really need?  When is too much too much?  Our satiation button is all out of whack.  Truly, the correct term for all of this "not enoughness" is greed and wasn't that one of the seven deadly sins?  Or it could even be attributed to greed's companion, gluttony, yet another deadly sin.  Just in case we need some numbers to verify these statements according to a new report by the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, we toss 1.2 billion tons of food a year - about 50% of the world's total production.*  Still think that America doesn't have an overconsumption problem tinged with ingratitude?   

Don't think for a minute that I have somehow managed to escape from this race to the finish for who has the most stuff or who can hoard the most or stuff and store the most.  Remember, I am the hesitant saint and a hard learner.  When my life's pillow case split from "too muchness," one of the effects was having to downsize.  Having to personally deal with the stuff of 40 years of marriage and 16 years in that oversized house has humbled me.  I expect no sympathy.  Following the American dream, I did it to myself.  Like - what is there to say to a woman who has found it necessary to acquire 32 pairs of boots?   Really??  To borrow another of my daughter's expressions: "did I really take my role in life seriously?" 

Being forced to downsize while initially a bitter "lemon" has turned out to be a much needed tonic.  All of my life's accumulated treasures have had to be put in storage pods as the downsized house is not ready to move into.  Alas, I have had to "make do" with much less than I ever thought that I possibily could.  This has been a great blessing and has made me more grateful for what I do have.  Instead of diminishing my life, because I have less, I am free of the burden of it.  I do have one recurring nightmare of what will happen when the plug is pulled on the storage pods and the avalanche of stuff crushes in on me.  It will be at that point that I will cry for mercy.  Until then, I shall continue to practice gratitude.  

Practice gratitude is really an excellent choice of words because as the Psychology Today article states, gratitude is a quality that can be acquired.  Our voracious appetites have been fueled by advertising and the media. However, we are still in control.  We just need to back off of that pedal of acquisition careening towards complete non-sustainability and practice gratitude instead.  Some side benefits to practicing gratitude include a greater sense of well-being and happiness.  Just as lemons can cleanse our palates between courses, so can gratitude cleanse away that tight feeling of "not enoughness" that eats away at us. 

So let's make a travelling pact and double dog dare each other to tell as many people as we sincerely can today thank you and to stop for at least a moment and truly appreciate what we do have instead of focusing on "if only."  If nothing else, it will make our mothers proud.  Instead of a recipe today being true to our pact, I am saying thanks to all of those who have gotten me on line - my two bros, who are tech smart and all around good guys, to my husband and mother - my dutiful readers -  and to those of you who have given me the gift of your time in reading my blog.  Gratitude really does work; I feel better already.

Thank You.   

* Time Magazine, January 28, 2013