💗🙏🏼Gratitude is NOT about pretending everything is great in the world. 🌎
Reflecting on 4 years of hosting 2X DAILY gratitude circles in Zoom.
This week I celebrated 4 year's of hosting Daily Gratitude Zooms.
TO BE CLEAR:
Gratitude isn’t about pretending everything is great in the world. It is not about denying the suffering.
It is making sure you don’t forget that - in a world filled with darkness - there is lots of AWESOME .
It's saying:
YES the world is harsh...AND it is filled with beauty.
YES, people suck...AND there is kindness to be found everywhere.
YES, life is unfair...AND we are constantly receiving the grace of miracles.
It is expanding your heart’s capacity for joy, so that you can have the strength to also acknowledge the pain.
For some people, joining a Zoom call has been occasional medicine for when they were spiritually depleted.
For others it is a consistent practice. Fully integrated into our daily lives.
I've been thinking about how many tiny details of ordinary life we helped each other raise from, “taking for granted” to, “appreciating. “
And how many life experiences were shared in those 4000+ Zoom calls!?!
Banging of pots and pans from Barcelona windows (to thank essential workers at the Pandemic start.)
Births
Deaths
Love Affairs
Heartbreak
Mental Illness
New Jobs
Lost Jobs
Homelessness
Home purchases
In-Person Meetups
Air Raid Sirens
Sickness & Surgeries
Book Clubs
Hurt Feelings & Repair
& Refugee Rescues
And EVERY one of our digital gatherings ends with the host saying, "On behalf of Grandpa Caleb, thank you for being a part of the Gratitude Gathering.”
I imagine him chuckling with his sparkly eyes as he looks down on his legacy. Seeing the ripples of his love being felt long beyond his death.
May we all remember to be grateful for the magnificent and the mundane.
May we all live in a way that makes positive ripples in the world.
THANK YOU for coming with me on this journey.
We are nowhere close to stopping.
Foreground photo of Rev. Caleb Shikles (1912-2007) & me taken in 2006 by Leah P.
Background collage of recent Gratitude Circle participants.