Gratitude and thankfulness are the vehicle through which we experience and recognize the goodness of the world. But often times we sell ourselves short. We stand in the sparkly beauty of fresh snow, staring at our feet and say, “That’s good, I’m grateful for that.” But we fail to look up and see just how far the snow goes. We fail to recognize the expansiveness of it all. We chalk gratitude up to lists, to things we can count on our fingers, we think it exists only because we recognize it. But goodness is so much bigger than that and it exists whether we choose to see it or not. Goodness splays its sparkly softness across mountain tops, down low valleys and it even nestles itself into pockets deep down in the seemingly darkest places of peoples’ lives. By being grateful we recognize what was already good by choosing to look up, by choosing to expand our perspective. It is everywhere the light touches, and everywhere it doesn’t, it is in the sparkly snow, and it is in the cold air we pull deep into our lungs reminding us we are alive. Goodness can be found anywhere, we need only to accept the gift of looking up.
Thoughts from Tina 