Color Me Grateful

Dark pink or peach flowers when given signify appreciation and gratitude. Some say that green is the color of gratitude. I say the color of gratitude is the full spectrum.

I am grateful for no particular reason except that I am alive and for every reason because I am alive. I am healthy, I have food, warmth, and am relatively secure given the state of our world today.

This morning the sun is bright. It is a bit chilly but that only adds to my aliveness. I decided to hang the jean load that I washed out on the line to dry. As I am outside I hear a bird. Not sure of the kind species I looked around and saw a woodpecker busily doing what woodpeckers do. Although I couldn’t hear the constant rhythmic pecking I could see that she was busily pounding out the tap - tap - tap that her kind are famous for. The tree from the neighbors yard that gives me grief when it drops it leaves and seed pods in another season was giving a place for this lone woodpecker to add some staccato to my morning.

Although the ground around our house seems to be drying out from the deluge of rain we have received there were still puddles and damp ground all around on our walk. What is good for some is not always good for everyone. The rain has caused great pain to those affected by flooding. The grief associated with the loss of possessions and life has been felt by many this week. The fact that my roof still leaks despite numerous visits from the roofer over the past 3 years is frustrating, inconvenient and definitely an eyesore as I watch the gross water soaked spot sag with the weight, but the fact that we live in the desert and often lack the necessary rain fall needed I know that the rain is good and necessary.

I realize haven’t done anything in particular to warrant my gratefulness. Earth shaking calamity has not knocked on my door so far. That I know of I don’t live on a fault line where earthquakes are likely to happen. I have moved away from tornado alley although I didn’t move for that reason. I moved for love which is a far better reason. The floods that occur occasionally somehow don’t usually affect me. Health wise, I do what I think is right to stay essentially healthy nevertheless there are no guarantees. Young vibrant beautiful people are afflicted with ravishing diseases for reasons no one can explain. Sure, like all, I have endured some life altering circumstances. My fair share of tears have been shed over the pain and loss that I have experienced. Felt despair for a time over things that are seemingly out of my control.

So I am grateful today not for any reasons of grandeur or luck that may have befallen my path. But I am grateful just to be here.

If though, tomorrow would bring a 7.0 earthquake into my existence would I still experience the gratefulness just to be here?

Kahlil Gibran said “Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.”