Daily Gratitude: “As a water pot is filled by the falling of drops, so a wise person is filled with good by accumulating it little by little.”

We’re in such a hurry nowadays. It’s not the “age of Aquarius” (who remembers that 😊?). It’s the age of instant gratification.

That wouldn’t be so bad because in a way, that desire drives us to take action. The problem is when we have to have EVERYTHING right now, not just a piece of “it”. Not just the small result of a small action step that was taken. We have to have it all. And we have to have it right now.

That’s one thing doing Vol State does for me. It slows everything down. I can’t reach the Rock in one day. Not even two. I have to accept and strive for one small group of miles each day – and, be satisfied with that. Don’t you think I was disappointed when I had to drop this year because of my back? Of course I was. If I’d been able to get it done in one day I wouldn’t have had to drop. I would have made it before my vertebra collapsed. But that’s not how it goes. I accumulated little bits (miles AND experiences) as I went along. And those miles and experiences gave me so much more than if I’d be-bopped right up to the Rock.

If you’ve ever had a leaky faucet you understand at least the first part of this quote. Or a leaky roof. The water drips into the pot. At first you really can’t see anything. But after a bit, when you look in the pot you begin to see a layer of water. Later it’s deeper and so on.

People often don’t donate any money to a cause because they feel their one dollar won’t do anything; that it’s insufficient. That people will think they’re stingy or poor. So they move on. What if 1000 people gave “only” a dollar? Would that be insufficient? Heck no. Maybe that dollar can help buy a cup of coffee (geez it used to buy more than one..sigh). It’s a bit of good. And it’s not even appropriate to say “a little” bit of good because labeling demeans the gift. It’s a gift from the heart. And that’s what life is all about.

What if you did a bit of good every single day. And you get to define “bit” and you can define it every single time? How do you think you’d look at life after a week? After a month? A year??

Daily Gratitude: “The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction not a destination.”

When you accept the premise behind this quote, you might cease being so impatient with how things are going.

Have you ever made plans to go somewhere or do something, working hard to get everything right? Then the event occurs. It can go very well; it can go horribly wrong; or it can be somewhere in between. We’ve talked about this before as far as expectations are concerned. By that I mean take some time to determine if things really were okay but just not as great as you expected (hoped) they would be. You can then change your opinion of how things went by removing or altering your expectations.

But this quote is about accepting that there is a reason for what happened when they actually did have problems or went badly.

Accept it. And declare it good (that’s thanks to the great Catherine Ponder). Stop getting your own way because you think you know how everything is supposed to work out. You don’t. Remember by motto “everything always works out for me”. It may not look that way at the time. But it will eventually.

What’s going on or happening in your life right now is not the end, not the destination. It’s just part of the process. You got on the local train, not the express. This train makes lots of stops but eventually will take you where you’re supposed to be. Even you don’t know where that is going to be. You can only hope for something and yes, you can plan for it but know that there is a force much smarter than you operating the train you’re on.

Enjoy the ride. Get off at each stop and see the sights. You will get where you’re supposed to be.

Daily Gratitude: “The struggles we endure today will be the ‘good old days’ we laugh about tomorrow.”

This may be one of the hardest concepts to embrace but it could become one of the most important if you do.

What might help is reviewing your life (which I highly recommend anyway) and finding those times when something “horrible” happened. And then thing about the months and years after that. How “horrible” did it remain? Sure there might be a few things that still seem not so good. But I will bet you that there aren’t as many as you thought that remain “horrible”. Even deaths and other losses.

It’s not that we shouldn’t feel sad or hurt or angry when those things do happen. It’s that we should keep them in perspective. Remember one post I wrote where i mentioned what a hotline caller had recommended. She said ask yourself (or ask a friend) “if this were September 12th, 2001 how important would this be?” That may sound callus but it isn’t. It’s a friend trying to help us put things in perspective.

We can endure so much more than we think we can. As the days go by, the intensity of even the most devastating event decreases. Our resilience helps us through. We may not think we are resilient but we are.

This horrible experience will, indeed, become part of the “good ole days” if we just wait long enough. But you don’t have to wait “long enough” to start to feel better. Recall what else you’ve survived and that will give you the strength you need.