A Gift of Gratitude

Today God told me to say goodbye to something I like in my life. I feel sad about it. Yet as I focused on being grateful for the time I’ve had this thing, my grief for its loss became a little less bitter. What can gratitude do for you? How can it transform losses into gifts and blessings?

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Video Transcript (edited):

I'm feeling sad. I just went for a run and I just got a feeling that I've only had one other time in my life. It was a feeling from the spirit saying "This is the end. Say goodbye.” What it was about is something that's dear to me, and I don't want to say goodbye! I'm sad. I feel really sad about it.

I'm also grateful to God for giving me that heads-up. Knowing my time with this thing is limited is valuable to me, and God’s heads-up was equally valuable the last time He sent it. I'm grateful that I was able to to hold His message and to hold my sadness and that I will be able to appreciate the thing while it's here, recognizing that it's time is short lived in my life.

So I was sitting here feeling that grief and allowing it and I have two thoughts to share. One is that it's so hard to sit with uncomfortable emotions. I’ve learned a lot about addiction in the last decade and I think the root of addiction is avoiding emotion. Those strong emotions, — like loss, grief, pain, regret and hurt -- those are hard for most of us to feel and accept. So that's what I was doing intentionally, — feeling and accepting this grief, or this impending loss.

But I wonder if there's another way. I remember when a dear relative of mine died. She was very dear to me and an important influence in my life. I felt a lot of grief at her passing. But when she died and I went to her funeral I experienced something beautiful. Her family focused on gratitude for her time in their lives. I had not experienced something like this before. As I joined her family in focusing on gratitude at her funeral, I recognized that it transformed the pain of the loss into something a little bit easier to bear. There was still the loss. Yet instead of just loss and absence, which can tend to pull me down, I felt loss and absence and joy from the memories of the times she was in my life.

So I tried that gratitude approach today. I still feel grief, but maybe it’s bittersweet, because I’m also grateful for the blessings this thing has given me.

So that's my thought for you today. What can gratitude do for you? How can it transform losses into gifts and blessings? Make them a little more sweet and a little less bitter?

Have a good day.

Keep shining.