GRATITUDE MONTH: DAY 10: “I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved; I have been given much and I have given something in return; I have read and traveled and thought and written. I have had an intercourse with the world, the special intercourse of writers and readers. Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.”― Oliver Sacks
Now THAT is what I call inspiration! And so, I will read this quote more often. It is ALL true for me. I have the added benefit of having been a maniac drug addict and drunk.
Given that, I have had the beautiful blessing of having spent over ½ of my life in recovery, learning about these things and practicing them. Mr. Sacks probably did not know the horrors of addiction. Maybe he did, I am not sure. But I know I did.
And, my observation about human nature is this: We are doubly grateful and happy for those things we have lost or not known when they come to us. If we focus on THAT! Otherwise, we end up, like so many other addicts, reverting back to the life we left behind.
It IS an enormous privilege and adventure to be alive on this beautiful planet. I feel it every day. More and more each minute. It felt so incredibly beautiful to wake up this morning. The ONLY thing I have to do is sit with THAT feeling before I start jumping into my day. I must focus on the joy and the beauty and the Grace or they are lost to me and I live in the Ego and fear and negativity.
It is a practice to learn to focus on this good, this miraculous life I have. I can laugh at the silly antics of my cat as he wants to taste everything I am doing in the kitchen. He loves everything I eat. So far, the only thing he does not like is my honey-mustard dressing. ??? How awesome to have such a funny cat! He runs into the bathroom every time I open the medicine cabinet and plays with dental floss as I brush my teeth. I have to be present enough to play with him for a minute and watch the joy on his face as he bats at the dental floss. He sits up, just like he stands with his front paws on the kitchen counter. Joy! And he loves me in such adorable ways.
Blessings are all around us. We seldom take the moments to pay attention and focus on them and be in the moment with them. We are pre-occupied by so much other crap…tv, news, phones, texting, all of which remove us from the present moment. And do not feed our spirits. A good phone call with a friend can be an amazing gift. True communication is done best face to face, but most of us don’t practice that. And we don’t understand why our thousands of FB friends so not satisfy our spirits. All ego…so sad. I wrote something up there…PRE-OCCUPIED…omg! Think about what that means. We are OCCUPIED by something even before life is happening. Set up for missing out! Right there! Words are powerful! So, I am NOT going to be PRE-OCCUPIED by anything today. I am taking a practicing addict out for a walk on the cliffs and beaches where I live. Let’s see how that goes…she truly needs some mindful activity. I am a good teacher of that.
Dolphin Hug 