Now we're getting to the space where gratitude and thankfulness is important. In order to stay in an attitude of gratitude its important to count your blessings. Some of the language in this prayer is old. When I was learning the prayer the word "myriad" seemed to jump off the page. What is "myriad?" According to Webster's Dictionary "myriad" means "a large indefinite number". So the prayer is saying we have an indefinite number of blessings. And I might add that most of our blessings we take for granted. Like waking up this morning. Some people didn't wake up this morning. We were taught to notice the little things that we often take for granted and to write them down in a "gratitude journal". Sarah Ban Breathnach wrote a book entitled "Simple Abundance" where she encourages the reader to single out the small things, like the fact that the water turned on when we took a shower, or the toilet flushed after using it, or the food we ate that day, or the fact that someone smiled at us when we passed them in the supermarket. I promise you that when you begin to single out your "simple" blessings each day, you'll begin to automaticlaly notice the blessings as they occur. If you want to develop an attitude of gratitude try writing down at least 5 blessings you received during the day. You should do this right before turning in for the night. I look back in my life and witness the times when I took my blessings for granted. And worse I would grumble and complain when I had to go grocery shopping. It started with writing down the list of things I needed to buy. My attitude of ingratitude started with writing the list "go check and see if we have enough paper towels" I would yell to my children. " do we need cereal?" I had read in one of those self help articles that I should make out a menu for the week and then write out my grocery list. Hmmm! What were we going to eat each day? By the time the list was complete my emotions were in the toilet. Even the kids singing and talking as we drove to the supermarket got on my nerves "would you please tone it down a little...I'm trying to drive". When you start off any chore with a negative attitude it becomes a slippery slope as you find more negative things to complain about. When we entered the store I would automatically look at the lines at the check out counters. Long lines made me feel worse "oh geez we'll be in here for days". Instead of being thankful that I had the money to buy what I needed, I made what could have been a good time, into a bad time. The cereal isle was one of my worse places to be, as the children would always argue about which cereral to buy. Having been brainwashed by the cereal commercials they always wanted the newest and most non nutritious cereal, like the ones that had marshmellows or candy inside. "no we can't buy that...look at the label there's too much junk in it". By the time we left the cereal isle, I had a headache. There was always one child who felt I was being mean because I wouldn't by the cereal with chocolae chips in it.
WE ATTRACT TO US WHAT WE CONSISTENTLY THINK ABOUT
By the time we reached the check out line my mood was worse. I had attracted every negative situation you could imagine, including someone bumping into me in the produce department or having to accompany one of my children to the bathroom, or having someone trying to get ahead of me in the check out line. At the beginning of the trip when I was making out my list I consistently thought this was going to be a negative experience. My negative mood and thinking became a self fulfilling prophency.
SUPERMARKETS CAN BE DANGEROUS PLACES
If you're working on increasing your finances any kind of shopping can be dangerous and especially the supermarket. That's because you're always looking at prices and for most people, we're saying "what? that's entirely too much to pay for (fill in the blank). My attitude of ingratitude started to change the day I saw a woman outiside the supermarket begging for change. Here I was with three grocery carts filled with food, looking at the receipt and thinking about how much money I spent which seemed to be much more than the last time, and I hear this woman's voice "sister can you spare some change?" I looked up to see a woman with a bunch of children and all of them seemed to have on clothing that was not warm enough for the season. This woman was looking at the dollars I hadn't put back in my wallet. I gave her the money and she was immediately grateful, "thank you and God Bless you>" On the drive home, after stopping at our favorite restaurant for lunch, thoughts of this woman came to mind. i remembered something my grandmother used to say when I was growing up "there but for the grace of God, go I." What if the only way to get money enough to buy the things I needed to feed my family was through begging for change? I decided that day to stop bellyaching about food shopping. I was blessed to have a car and enough money to buy the things I needed.
WHAT YOU BLESS EXPANDS AND GROWS
When I came in contact with the books and worrkbooks written by Sarah Ban Breathnach I "got it" that I needed to change my mind about money and especially when going grocery shopping. I started giving thanks as I was writing down my grocery list, i.e. "we need dishwashing detergent...thank you God". My husband was a manager of a car dealership so I was always driving a new car, which was part of the deal when he was promoted to manager. The car always started up at the turn of the ignition key, "thank you God". Even though I didn't like going to the grocery store or supermarket, I did heve enough money to buy what I needed, plus extras. Thank you God. When I started approaching this chore with an attitude of gratitude, my creativity kicked in. I found a way to get through the cereal isle without getting a headache or fussing at the kids. The decisions about cereal were made before we left the house. Then each child wss given the opportunity to choose the cereal for the week, while the rest of us did the other shopping. I taught them how to read labels and they competed to find the best and most nutritious cereal. I separated the list and gave each child a section..."you get the produce" "you get the paper products". Our time in the supermarket went much faster as they would race to bring back the things on their section of the list. They would also take great pride in finding a sale or bargain. What was a dreaded chore (for me) became a family experience that was fun and enjoyable. We began to save money, as the children would look at the store flyers (that I usually passed over) to find the bargains for the week. As my attitude improved their attitude improved. Just a smile and a hug influenced my children to be full participants in this weekly activity. (notice I changed the word from "chore" to "activity"). Thankfully I was able to change one area of my life from a downer to an upper. I "got it" that I was sending off negative energy once a week, when it was totally unnecessary. Negative energy is contagious and positive energy is also contagious. And we get to choose which energy we're going to embrace.
Thought for the day: I will count my blessings all day long. Join us in a group meditation at 8:00pm every night.
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