“Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
Melody Beattie
Making Sense of our Past
For the last few years I have been trying to make sense of the past (as I work on my memoir) and truthfully I haven’t got there yet. It seems there are so many ways to get stuck in yesterday.
Things I should of done, shouldn’t of done, etc. The drama of all that is just a place I don’t need to spend time in. Making the decision to look on the past with gratitude puts things in a perspective that is breathable. Livable. And my favorite of all emotions to live in . . . Joy-filled.
A eon or two ago when I was in college I took a class on Film History. And one thing the instructor showed us to take notice of was how a character was filmed. If the camera was placed low and looking upwards it made the character a hero. The good guy, Bigger than life.
If the camera was positioned above looking down it made the character smaller and of less significance. Perhaps a villain or a nobody.
How we look at our past memories can be just as subjective I think. Perhaps we were small and others looked much bigger and more important. Emotion plays a big part in the importance we put on memories. What we were feeling at the time, whether it was true or not will color how our memories have been stored in our heads. When they are replayed back comes all the emotions they were originally filmed.
So recasting some of those memories with a sense of gratitude can change the scripts we have held onto that maybe weren’t so good. With gratitude we reposition our past into a brighter and better vision that allows us to move forward with a greater understanding of life turning out for the better.
Peace for Today
Gratitude for today means accepting what is happening right now. The weather, the world, people in our life. Everything is where it is and being okay with that is like back floating on a peaceful lake. The water supports us – the now supports us. Life is livable and our need to make everything different than it actually is can with a sense of gratitude allow us to let go and let be.
If I want to make myself anxious and upset all I have to do is start fighting with reality. Believing that my life “should be” something different than it is. This is when the big “I SHOULD’S” gather like storm clouds ready to dump a load of depressed thinking over my mental landscape.
Some of my thinking here is from Byron Katie’s book, “Loving What Is.” That was such a profound life changing book for me. I don’t know that her thinking was that different it was just how she explained it so it made sense. One of those, oh yeah! moments.
Vision for Tomorrow
Gratitude for what tomorrow will bring. A much better way to think about nice things happening rather than oh my gosh, “What if bad things happen?”
Also when one has a positive vision for the future one is able to move with a greater sense of calm, quiet self paced steps rather than panic filled galloping helter-skelter into the future.
Overwhelm caused by filling our thinking with negative thoughts accomplishes little. Putting time lines on projects and circumstances that fill us with stress is no way to love the future or find peace in the now.
Scripture quote for the day
“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.”
1 Chronicles 16:34
Please add “your” three gratitude moments in the comments. It’s a great way to pick up your day and it’s fun for the rest of us to read!
- A sunshine, blue sky day.
- Roses bedded down for the winter with mulch. One winter task done!
- Sent book off to the editor.
2 Responses
I think that our past allows us to be the person we are today. I look back and am thankful for the people and places that affected my life. I learned from it and them and sometimes I am not happy with the past but it shaped me…helped me to learn helps me to be.
Hi Pat,
Beautiful post ! You are such an inspirational writer. Thank you.
Grateful for:
Good results at Derm office
Delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwich on white bread
Beautiful weather