The Gs and one H

Blog Post by Meka Sales

“All shall be well, all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well”  ~Julian of Norwich

GOOD

Life—it’s all right. That’s basically what the Julian of Norwich quote exemplifies and throughout this Lenten season of practicing gratitude, I have really embraced this notion. Life is GOOD. It’s messy, funny, complex, layered, exhausting, exhilarating, AND good. I’ve practiced gratitude before during different seasons of my life and this one felt a little different. Somehow it felt more ordinary. As if the ordinary was just enough for me to tap into contentment and peace even when challenges presented themselves. 

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

Gratitude is a lovely cycle of…well, gratitude. By sharing what I was grateful for each day I was expecting good things to happen and looking for the good in bad things that happened. Either way, I carried an expectation that there would lots to be grateful for, and at the end of each day I usually had numerous things from which to choose. Mostly they were small things like when I was having a challenging day, a nice word or gesture from the woman at the bank let me know that I am cared for and cared about. Or a long, luxurious phone call with a friend catching up on relationships and life. Sometimes they were big things where loved ones traveled many miles just to BE with us or something I was really anxious about doing somehow ended up not happening. I can honestly say that I woke each day with the expectation that it was going to be a good day and I believe that by focusing on having a grateful spirit, the universe shifted just a little bit in my favor.

GRACE

GRACE and I got to know each other real well over these past 40+ days. She was like an uninvited but extremely welcomed guest. Actually, one day an old friend stopped by unexpectedly and I was so blessed by her short visit. She reminded me of the importance of having a spirit of hospitality and I was glad that she knew she could come over unannounced. Grace, like my friend, just showed up always at the right time. It was like God saying, yep, I’m here and my power is real. One thing I noticed is that it showed up the most when I was obedient. Often times, I get an assignment from God and I’ve been known to ignore it. There were days during this Lenten season when I said, ok God, I will do whatever you tell me to do today. One assignment was to simply call a friend I hadn’t talked to in many months. When she answered my call, her first words were, “God must have told you to call me.” 
  
HAPPINESS

Happiness isn’t about getting what you want all the time. It’s about loving what you have and being grateful for the same. I don’t know who wrote this, but I believe it. As I practiced loving what I have during this season, I felt a deep sense of happiness. I felt grounded, safe, and stable. This connection with myself made connecting with others less frightening. I was able to just let the interaction happen with ease and allow grace and peace to do their thing. A friend of 20+ years, who spent a weekend with me, told me that I hadn’t seemed this happy since our carefree early college days.

Now if practicing gratitude can bring an ease that’s reminiscent of a time when I literally had no worries, that’s the space that I want to live in each day.