Appreciation

 

 

Gratitude is very close to appreciation. When we appreciate something, we are grateful. I read that even the worst sort of a day can be appreciated for all the dreadful things that did not happen to us. I am finding it fun to look for different things to be grateful for each day. They are often little things like clean sheets; that thought immediately makes me grateful for a washer and dryer and for hot water. That triggers the gratitude I feel for clean water that one can drink; for water that allows us to have a swimming pool. The thought of the pool then triggers even more gratitude as I thought when I entered that I would never swim again and now I have a pool that waits for me each day and I do enjoy it and thank God for it. It also brings back memories of my family gathered around the pool in my parents' last home - one that they bought, I think, because of the pool. My Dad would sit out there in the evening after checking the chemicals used to keep the water pure and he would just contemplate the white swan (a rubber one but really it looked quite real) as it floated around the pool. As you can see, I could not get the cursor to begin at the left margin and do not know why!

 

Here is what I am trying to copy about gratitude:

 

	Be thankful for what DIDN’T happen. No matter how bad things are, they could almost always be worse. Start finding gratitude for what could have happened but didn’t. You may not be thankful for everything in your life, but you can always be thankful for something. Find more tips like this in Learning to Dance in the Rain by Mac Anderson and BJ Gallagher.
2.	Don’t hold on to your anger or hurt. Though you may not realize it, you are always choosing between two ways of perceiving: Looking to the world for reasons to be upset, or looking in your heart for reasons to be happy. You can’t be upset and grateful at the same time, and life is too short to look for reasons to be upset. Try to remember that patience and tolerance bring you happiness, while anger and hatred bring you suffering. Find more tips like this in Smile for No Good Reason by Dr. Lee Jampolsky.
3.	Savor life’s little moments. Italian poet and novelist Cesare Pavese once said, “We do not remember days; we remember moments.” At today’s hectic pace, however, we often forget to live in the moment, to just be. And by just being, by just soaking up a beautiful moment, we can find some of life’s greatest pleasures. Find more tips like this in The Road to Happiness by Mac Anderson and BJ Gallagher.
4.	Express your gratitude by living it. Expressing gratitude brings even more things to be grateful for. No matter what’s going on around you, look for things to appreciate, and then express your appreciation. You don’t spread gratitude by preaching or scolding—you spread it by living it. Every moment. Every hour. Every day. John F. Kennedy said it best, “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” Find more tips like this in Learning to Dance in the Rain by Mac Anderson and BJ Gallagher.