Gratitude

This morning’s word – Gratitude

I’ve been reading a lot about gratitude. Everyone wants it. Everyone seems to struggle to have it. There’s a big movement of gratitude journaling, of taking time every day to reflect and jot down the things for which you’re grateful. Some people take quick photos of the moments that inspire gratitude. There’s a lot of chatter about how to find it and live it. 

I think the hardest thing about gratitude is how incredibly mundane and commonplace it is. Sure, it can be found on the mountain top. With the birth of a new grandchild. With a promotion. But those don’t come around as frequently as our everyday lives. Here’s my morning of gratitude.

Today, I’m back riding my bicycle to work, after 2 weeks in car and bus. A few weeks ago, I was riding my bike up a pretty busy street at 6:00pm on the way to a church vestry meeting. My back brakes seemed to be sticking. A lot. When I finally got to church, dismounted the bike and walked it to the bike rack, it nearly stopped every time the brakes got to that sticky place. The next day, I took it in to the bike shop, because I couldn’t adjust them to make it stop. It turns out that the wheel rim had started to come apart, and the metal was splaying out, catching on the brakes which were not broken after all. Several weeks and a new constructed wheel later, I’m back on the bike.

Today it’s supposed to break 80 degrees. Amazing weather, since yesterday didn’t get to 65 and Friday’s high is 55. It’s a great day to be on a bike!

And as I was riding, there were a lot of low clouds. So much so that the tallest peak, Spencer Butte was entirely obscured. In Seattle, they have a unique way of talking about clouds and Mt. Rainier. When it’s clear, and you can see the mountain, they say, “the mountain’s out”. So today, the Butte was not out. Throughout the ride, the sun and blue skies tried to peek through.  And then the low cloud cover would take over. 

When I got to the Willamette River, it was lighter out. The clouds were thinning. But still the sun was obscured. It was beautiful, in a hazy, promising way.   

And with all of this, I arrived at work with an immense sense of gratitude. Here goes my gratitude markers for today. All pretty mundane and everyday.

• I’m grateful my wheel didn’t collapse while I was riding on the busy street. 
• I’m grateful my bike’s back, and it’s a nice day to ride.
• I’m grateful that I know there’s a Butte behind the clouds.
• I’m grateful that I know it’s going to be a beautiful day, even with the obscured hazy morning.

The thing about gratitude is that it’s really easy to miss the things that should make our heart sing. Instead of being grateful, it’s easy to be upset about the very things that should bring us joy. It’s not so much that I’m always like Pollyanna, but rather that I strive to move through the grousing to the place of gratitude. I like the idea of journaling and keeping track of gratitude moments. And I likely will never do it consistently. But with practice, I believe it’s easier to infuse the everyday with moments of gratitude. 

Thinking about gratitude and the peek-a-boo sun, I'm reminded of faith. Grace is always there.  God is always there. Sometimes we blow through our days and don't notice. We complain about the sun obscured by the clouds, or even miss that the sun is there at all.  But it is.  Always there.  Maybe that's what gratitude does, is gives us the perspective to see the sun through the clouds.  To see the grace in our everyday.