Gratitude and the Intersection Where “Wanting” Meets “Already Having”
Where is it that we put our focus in life? What do we give our energy to?
Without a doubt, this Human Experience can be an arduous and difficult journey sometimes, fraught with pitfalls, trials and tragedies. Often, we feel like — despite our best efforts — that we just don’t ”have” enough, or we can’t ”do” enough, or the world itself ”isn’t” enough.
Pacific sunset; from the top of Cougar Peak, CA (near Tomales Bay)
We see it — this "lack" — and we are quite aware that something seems very wrong with the picture.
If you have visited these pages in the past, you probably have noticed that I often talk about gratitude, even though I also often rail on about various hardships and the ”wrongs” of the world.
My point here is that it can be very easy to lose sight of the fact that there are lots of things we do have… and it's all too easy to just put all our energy and drive into ”what’s missing.”
I’m by no means denying that things are sometimes not as they should be, but there’s an awful lot to be grateful for, and let’s not forget about that simply because we're getting mired down in our eternal focus on ”what we DON’T have.”
Busy bee on a blackberry blossom
There is an interesting synergy that arises when we remain mindful of both sides of the coin.
Many of the happiest and most at peace individuals I have had the privilege of meeting have invariably managed to strike a balance between having gratitude for ”what IS” and their desire to find and change ”what’s MISSING.”
Conversely, many of those who seem to be eternally engaged in their own personal eternal ”crusades” to address all the perceived ”lacks” of the/their world are often also the biggest ”Debbie Downers” you can meet, eternally dismissing any good and positive things around them as ”not important...” or simply taking them for granted, like those things are some kind of birthright.
Eucalyptus blossoms
Let's consider a close-to-home example: Do you lament and rail on over the fact that your most recent Hive post "only made $2.00" or do you find gratitude for the fact that you were rewarded $2.00 more than you would have been, if it had been Facebook?
Ultimately, making too much fuss over "what you don't have" can become a way to completely miss out on living in — and enjoying — the present moment because your gaze and intention is always focused on some point in the future where you might secure that elusive missing thing.
From where I am sitting? Life is too short! Enjoy it, while you can!
Thanks for reading, and have a great remainder of your week!
How about YOU? Do you often worry about "what's missing?" Or are you more oriented towards "what already is?" Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
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Created at 20220518 19:55 PDT
0577/1823
I'm fortunate to be thankful for the little things in life; I always say that I look at the world with rose-tinted glasses, not that it blinds me, but I'd rather see the good things and try and bring out the goodness in the people I come into contact with regularly.
Ever since being locked up with the restrictions Covid brought, I am even more thankful and enjoy life even more!
Thank you for the inspiration you continue bring to Silver Bloggers!
And for introducing your wife to us as well, she is a very brave lady to be using her bad experience to help others, a real angel!
Thanks for your kind words!
For the most part, I'd say the path to living a reasonably happy life is to be aware that the bad parts are there and exist, while directing our energy at whatever it is we believe has a positive influence on our lives.
I have to admit that Covid hasn't exactly constituted "suffering" for us, either (except for actually CATCHING the wretched thing, twice) since we're pretty dedicated recluses and the restrictions enables us to spend more time doing the things at home that we really enjoy.
You know, the more people my age (50 plus) I chat to, the more I realise they're the grateful ones, or have a good solid gratitude practice, knowing what it is to lose, and knowing it's not good for your mental health to sweat the small stuff. By that reasoning, are more older people happy than not?
I have noticed this phenomenon: older people walking around at peace and happy, without a care in the world. Some of us do learn as we go, I guess. I know I'm happier at 46 than I could even dream of at 26!
Me too! And I'm glad you are too x
In retrospect, I went through many years of discovering that when it seems like something is "missing" from my life, the answer to finding it isn't very often "out there," it is inside myself. And thus... a sense of greater gratitude arises.
And yes, I do think we learn to worry less and less about the "small stuff."
Sometimes I fall into the old habit of looking at what is missing, however, I get out of there immediately because I know that staying in dialogue with the old does not do me any good, so I choose to connect with gratitude, in order to feel myself again full.
That sounds like a wise way to approach it. We can certainly learn from the past... but life happens NOW.
In America, even the homeless walk around with smart phones. Yet the dominant narrative of our culture (in politics, the media, entertainment) is about how horrible things are. It's mass delusion. And, ironically, the scarcity mindset, the belief that we are experiencing lack, or about to experience lack, is the reason that homelessness is a problem at all. If you believe you don't have enough, you are much less likely to be generous. I think if we realized the true level of our material comfort, the abundance we enjoy, and the ease with which we can attain or manifest more, we would be much more likely to care for all members of the tribe. The balance you are talking about is fundamentally important to actually making improvements in our society.
The US is a particularly strange cesspool of mixed messages. And it's pretty toxic.
The machinery in this country is driven by eternal marketing of the idea that we much eternally seek more of everything, because if the fear of scarcity wasn't eternally perpetuated corporate profits might decline and how horrible would that be? (not). Thus, the average person around is strongly discouraged from entertaining the idea that they have enough and could potentially be quite content without eternally questing for some kind of "upgrade" of everything in their lives.
Let's face it, I'm virtually "unpatriotic" for almost always buying used and thrift store... meaning that I am not "supporting" new production.
My greetings @denmarkguy.
What a nice and to the point post to teach to every reader to be grateful.
When we reach the age of our third youth, I would suppose that we should be mature enough to express gratitude for all the good life we may have lived, regardless whether we were beggers or givers, something that probably from our teenagehood onwards we just did not care about. That reminded me of a poem by Douglas Malloch "Be The Best of Whatever you are".
Thanks again.
Take care..