Gratitude is that spoonful of sugar

“Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.”

Sometimes it's hard to remember gratitude in times of difficulty. In fact, it's hard to even want to feel gratitude, much less care about anything except for the negative subject(s) at hand. I have learned, however, that in these moments of great fear, loss, hurt, anger or whatever it is that we're feeling, gratitude (and humor!) can be that one thing that makes all the difference. The 'spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine go down', if you will. When we take a moment to realize that the good really does outweigh the bad, we don't feel so lost. Alone. Scared. Helpless or whatever it is that we're up against. The end of a job, a relationship, a "failure". Even these things that seem like a bad thing are what we could feel grateful for because the ending of something isn't nessesarily a bad thing, rather the beginning of something else. Perhaps that something else is just what we've needed, just what we've been waiting for.

Josh Ritter

Last night's Josh Ritter concert at the Granada Theater was just what I needed. I hadn't seen him since I lived in Los Angeles. In fact, I hadn't felt music in a long time the way I feel his. If you have never experienced a Josh Ritter concert, I strongly recommend it. I have been back in Dallas since Septemeber. Within the last 8 months it was: a short stay in New York, a hiatus in Europe for three weeks, back to Texas for my Grandfathers funeral, followed by a job loss, a live-in boyfriend, a new business venture, many hours of working, another project and business venture, etc. Josh brought me back to a moment in my life where everything was a little simpler. Thoughts of L.A. seem to come back often these days. And I look upon it fondly, almost as if that part of my life never really happened. I ask myself often, "did I really wake up every morning with the sun shining on my face, the sounds of birds chirping, a promising day ahead for the beach or even a drive into the mountains?" It was another time and place, a dream. A dream that I was awakened from too soon. I am still pondering Josh's words from last night, "If a dream never happens, does that make it a lie?"