Counting Our Blessings

Counting our blessings doesn't ask for things to be perfect. It just puts our attention on the things that we truly love about life. We could do that more often, especially if we are chronic worriers.

There's the 3 things to be grateful for before you fall asleep idea. Or the three things before your feet hit the floor in the morning. Or a gratitude journal. I appreciate how this model works. It keeps our busy minds focused on something positive for more than 2 seconds.

My approach is similar. While feeling how good that bowl of soup is after coming in from the cold, I can stop right there and let that feeling seep into my bones - let the good tonal qualities infuse my whole energy. More than 2 seconds. By lingering in these blessings, I see how it changes my body. The soup may warm my body but the pause to let goodness sink in makes me feel fresher, cleaner, lighter. And later on, after I go back into the fray, its stays with me.

This practice isn't about how many blessings there are to count. It's about letting their goodness improve our lives.

Unexpected Connections

Like a message in a bottle, a slip of paper fell out of the old sci-fi paperback I picked up at a used book store. Until then, the book seemed impersonal. But now I know that someone named Peter read this book. He also bought a couple of small items from a hardware store in Toronto, 50 miles away on December 29, 1988 and charged them to his credit card. 
Hello Peter, wherever you are. I wonder if you enjoyed the book as much as I am enjoying it now?

Inevitable ?

While sorting through his pills for the next week, I got a flashing image of the bottle tipping over. So I moved the bottle back. I knocked it over anyhow. The foretelling didn't prevent it from happening. It didn't make it any easier to clean up. But it did soften the blow. It's like life already told me what was going to happen. I scooped the few I could save and watched the rest waterfall off the back of the dresser, wondering how much dust there was underneath. By that time, it felt inevitable.