To be grateful
Most of the time, it's a choice. I LIKE being grateful, I WANT to be grateful, and so it's my habit to choose it... it makes me feel better. When I can't, well, that's the truth and I have to accept it. But usually I can scrounge around and come up with something elemental. Air, water, sunlight. : )
I did it a lot -- gratitude journals, 5 things a day -- during the worst times of my life: when my marriage fell to pieces, after Andy's brain tumors were diagnosed, and through other blows to the spirit.
At church yesterday we did lots of intentional gratitude. I also LOVED the singing... being in a choir is so uplifting. Grateful for that. Grateful for my sweet Mum and Dad who had us for lunch. Grateful for my brave, kind husband. Grateful for Andy's friend Heather who came to visit me last night... grateful for the connection we feel, the tears we shared.
With love and gratitude for you, too,
Sarah
=======================================
Here's something beautiful I'd like to share with you:
Yesterday at church Rev. Jennifer told us the story of how Carl Sagan, working on the Voyager, asked NASA to please have the camera aim back towards earth when it was at the outer edge of our solar system, in "deep space", and take one last picture to send back. They said, "You won't be able to see anything," but he insisted. The photo showed Earth in a beam of sunlight, a speck, a pale blue dot. This is what he wrote: "We succeeded in taking that picture and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.
The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity -- in all this vastness -- there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us. It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."
-- Carl Sagan
I did it a lot -- gratitude journals, 5 things a day -- during the worst times of my life: when my marriage fell to pieces, after Andy's brain tumors were diagnosed, and through other blows to the spirit.
At church yesterday we did lots of intentional gratitude. I also LOVED the singing... being in a choir is so uplifting. Grateful for that. Grateful for my sweet Mum and Dad who had us for lunch. Grateful for my brave, kind husband. Grateful for Andy's friend Heather who came to visit me last night... grateful for the connection we feel, the tears we shared.
With love and gratitude for you, too,
Sarah
=======================================
Here's something beautiful I'd like to share with you:
Yesterday at church Rev. Jennifer told us the story of how Carl Sagan, working on the Voyager, asked NASA to please have the camera aim back towards earth when it was at the outer edge of our solar system, in "deep space", and take one last picture to send back. They said, "You won't be able to see anything," but he insisted. The photo showed Earth in a beam of sunlight, a speck, a pale blue dot. This is what he wrote: "We succeeded in taking that picture and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.
The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity -- in all this vastness -- there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us. It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."
-- Carl Sagan
Replies
Wow ~ that quote from Carl Sagan just blows me away! I\'m grateful for your sharing today!
Sending much love and big hugs of gratitude ~ Debbie
My father had a far more blue collar way of assessing the order of the universe. \"You are just a fart in a wind storm\", he would say. In spite of such elemental simplicity, I got it.
Your journaling is such a joy to read and reflect upon. You just ooze earth goddess energies, and that is a gift to all around you. Are you and Joanie sisters???
I share your love affair with breastfeeding. Nothing like a young lactating woman! Your lovely chronicle of that sacred offering is priceless. Those were the best years of my life as well. It is the ultimate nurture, and the purest expression of our human-ness.
Thank you Sarah for sharing your heart.
Love and light, Rebecca
Sarah, I am so very grateful that God sees us as more than a dot in the vast cosmos of things. My screen name says it all...the kingsdaughter...and for that I am grateful. Your list of gratitude makes me think of my own. I am glad and grateful for your prompting.
love, dale..brandon\'s mom
You have such a good attitude, you are a wonderful example for me. Hope I can be more grateful in the future, you\'re right it\'s a choice, but sometimes I forget to choose.
Terry
It is a choice and I appreciate the beauty and vulnerability in which you write about your choices. The freedom and joy in this moment... deep inhale and exhale... loving the questions, the path and not resisting what is as that zaps our life force energy. Sending rays of love and light always dear Sarah.
All I can say is WOW! LOVE this message from Mr. Sagan!!! To be so conceded, so self-righteous, so sure that \"I\" am more important that \"you\"....is such lunacy! There are so many galaxy\'s, so many universes, so much more than our little human pea brains can begin to understand....and yet we think we know it all and further, know what\'s best for everyone else! Good grief Charlie Brown!
Yes, I\'m a firm believer in making up my mind to live in a state of gratitude and joy. It\'s not always easy, and some days I blow it big time, but with every fall, I become more determined to succeed.
Thanks for this inspiring entry! I\'m sure I\'ll be returning to it often.
Thank you Sarah, for reminding me - that I am not the center of the universe. Even though most days our actions dictate that we think and live otherwise. I, too am making the choice to be grateful for this little blue marble where I find myself and for the \"Who\" that Horton heard! Love, Suzzanne
Yes, today I feel the connection with everyone on our little blue dot. It won\'t last, but for now, at least, it\'s a good, warm and safe feeling. If only we could see ourselves as part of the same family, we wouldn\'t spend so much time and money, energy, to kill each other off.
thanks for sharing the beautiful Carl Sagan quote! love to you...