Diary of an American

I have been so grateful for the kindness of people this week in the comments and support they have left on my posts. “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed,” Hemingway once said. It take a lot of courage to bleed and see how the world responds when you uncover who you really are. It has taken me over thirty years to understand in the great symphony of voices that make up this world, my voice is not insignificant. Neither is yours. What I would wish on the world at this present time would be that more people would see what they have and practice gratitude, even if they believe they do not have much. Gratitude knows no bank account and does not keep track of possessions; thus a tent a poor person lives in is as good as a castle if it keeps one warm and safe and dry.

Sometimes practicing gratitude means removing toxicity from your life. Stop watching the news. Be informed, not bombarded. Do you have people around you who are constantly negative, telling you the world is doomed, you can’t do this, or you’re no good at that? Sometimes you have to be a renegade and kick those people to the curb or at least, in the case of family, maybe put them at a distance.

How to practice gratitude? Here’s some ideas….

You can write what you are grateful for on slips of paper daily and stick them in a gratitude jar. I made mine out of an old canning jar and decorated it up. At the end of each month I pull out those slips of paper and remind myself of all I have to be grateful for.

You can open the door for somebody and be grateful that you are able to open a door. Some people can’t. Can you walk? Be grateful. Are you unable to walk? You’re alive and here for a purpose. That’s a huge thing to be grateful for. I have learned it is the people society deems helpless who exhibit the most strength and do the most wondrous things.

You are alive, and here to make someone’s world better. What are the things you can do right now, to make that happen? What we think of as small things are the greatest things, even if no one else sees what you do.

I am grateful for you. Thank you for being here and being a part of my day.