Don’t you just love this time of day? Those seconds when your eyes haven’t fully opened, that interlude between sleeping and awakening, when your senses are still dormant and full awareness hasn’t reached your consciousness yet. In this moment in time, as brief as it may be, there is no grief, no pain, no anxiety, no grasp yet of one’s actual reality and one can luxuriate in this gift of the day for whatever length is afforded to one. Sometimes the reluctance to leave this ethereal, celestial base is both figuratively and literally painful and I envy those for whom there is no divide between these 2 worlds . Very young children , not yet tainted by the realism of what lies ahead, can enter into a conscious state with unbridled delight . How does one rekindle that joy when the lesser aspects of our bodies and minds rail against us and arrive immediately in our consciousness despite being uninvited?
People seek The Holy Grail. Perhaps what we should be seeking instead is that inexplicable joy which the Apostle Paul wrote about whilst in prison. The illogical choice to rejoice in the things that hinder life and even cause pain. This seems like an oxymoron and is nearly impossible to achieve without constant dedication and hope. However, the alternative is to allow circumstances to define our joy and desire for living and if we are not free to choose a life without pain or suffering, we do have the choice of how we accept, adapt and deal with our lot. The word gratitude may be bandied about a lot but this should not diffuse the sincerity of its meaning. It is associated with many health and mental benefits and so it stands to reason that if you apply it to your life as the first conscious crutch to help you face the day, then why would you not grab it with both hands? But the key to gratitude is not in passively counting one’s blessings. It is rather by channelling your gratitude towards the benefactor , – be it your creator, your partner or your best friend. Better still, we should actively contribute to and further this gratitude by passing it along to those who have blessed us by praising them and telling them how amazing they are. This enables us to reflect on what we have given rather than only on what we have received.
If we think of gratitude as an action – best verbalised and performed thus forming a connection to someone else,- in so doing, we draw our focus away from ourselves , our plight and our infirmities . A good enough reason to pull us out of our reverie perhaps ?
