Gratitude part 1 of N

I’ve mentioned the word in posts before. Without being terribly formal about it, gratitude is probably my top spiritual practice. It keeps me grounded, fixes my attitude. I am convinced it makes me happier because it helps me realize I have so many reasons to be happy.

And I do.  Fundamentally, I am grateful to be living when and where I am living. In any other age, and even in this age in many other places, I could not have the life I have. I could have been dependent on the kindness of others and probably close to impoverished for the past 9 years. Instead, I have control over my life, a wonderful house,  many friends, opportunities for learning, growth, and interesting work.  

I am grateful to be living in in a time and place where I can live alone, choose my activities, ride a bike, re-invent myself professionally, make a living, own property, and many, many other things as a woman in her middle years. There are, in fact, very few constraints on me that I don’t place on myself.  

I look around the room, and interests tug at me – music, books, knitting, the garden (in the form of seed catalogs). There’s not enough time for them all. How lucky I am to be able to indulge in all these and more. Maybe I’ll talk about them, one at a time, in future posts. Each time I will remember to be grateful.