Gratitude

Hello everyone.
Tonight I was at an A.A. meeting and the topic of gratitude came up for discussion. Several comments were shared about being grateful for what we have and focusing less on what we do not have.
The Idea of making a daily gratitude list came up in one comment. Gratitude lists are a great way to begin to teach ourselves that we can receive good things in life. We create something tangible to read every day, as we add things to our list.
As we become conscious of being thankful for things such as air to breathe or food to eat, we begin to recognize thankfulness in other ways as we just live life day by day.
One person said, "I began to look for things to write on my list, because I knew that I was going to be making it later that night".
There is power in writing down things onto paper. They become real and something to hold in our hands and in our minds. I am thankful for many things in my life. Here are just a few of them. I almost died in 2003 of liver cirrhosis, but I didn't. I woke up this morning and had oatmeal for breakfast...with cinnamon..and it was delicious. My best friend spent two days with me this week while visiting from Arizona and it was so mentally and spiritually refreshing to me.
Last weekend I attended the Landmark Forum and learned that decisions that I made when I was three years old about how life occurs, became the filter through which I was still seeing my life at fifty three years old. I recognized and distinguished the incidents in which I made this decision and its power just melted away and I WAS FREE in my mind and spirit in a way that I have never been in all of my life. I am thankful for close friends and card games, Dairy Queen and red leaves in the fall and still having all my limbs.
You see...it doesn't matter what is written into the gratitude list. Great or small is only in the mind of the one who is having the experience.
Another thing that writing a gratitude list does is creates a space in the present moment where we can recognize what is happening right now ,rather than wallowing in the regrets of the past. So, we get a better attitude when we are thankful. I sure do. Hey, I woke up this morning and there wasn't grass growing over the top of my head. That sure improves MY attitude. In the space of good attitude, good things happen and my list gets longer and more good things happen.
A final idea that comes to me in regards to attitude is that it helps me step out of a space of depression and into new and fresh ideas about life and helps me recognize possibilities of good things that will come to me. Rah! Peace, everyone