Monday, May 28, 2012

It's a Wonder-full life.

Last week, I told you about the book Attitudes of Gratitude (if you haven't read the blog post yet, click here to read it now).  It's not a long book and it's one that you will want to read over and over so if you haven't picked it up or ordered yourself a copy yet, make sure you do!  I'm actually only on the 4th "lesson" as I'm following the author's advice: 
This is not a book to be read at one sitting.  Rather, I encourage you to read one chapter and let it sink in for a while- a day, two days, even a week of longer- before moving onto the next.  Since gratitude is both an attitude and a practice, you need time to integrate the learnings so they can become truly yours, and not something you just read, put away, and forget.
The 4th lesson is about how Gratitude Makes Us Young.  M.J. Ryan describes how children look at the world with curiosity and how everything is new, exciting and full of wonder.  This reminded me of a little girl I saw on the street with her Mom last week.  She looked up at her Mom and said "Let's run" and then took off laughing and running down the sidewalk.  (I swear I'm not making this up for the sake of this blog post. It really happened.  Here's proof... I snapped this photo when I caught up to them at the corner while they were waiting to cross the street).


Anyway, as soon as the light turned and they crossed the street, the little girl said the same thing again, "Let's run," and she laughed and ran down the sidewalk.  It made me think about how something as simple as running is fun and exciting when you're little and that somehow, as we get older, running becomes something we have to do in gym class, a distance we have to run in a certain amount of time, something we do for exercise, for health and for weight management.  We certainly don't run for fun anymore, well most of us anyway. 

I realize that as we get older we become skeptical, we think that there has to be a reason or a purpose for everything.  If it doesn't have purpose, it's a waste of time.  Well, it's time to stop looking at the world through shattered lenses and to put the rose-colored glasses of youth back on.  It's time to notice again, that the world is a place full of wonder.

I'm going to put this philosophy into practice this week.  I'm going to be more observant of my surroundings and am going to make an effort to see the wonder and beauty around me, even if I'm in a rush or having a bad day... especially when I'm in a rush or having a bad day. 

This week, I'm going to post a picture each day on the Fresh Equation facebook page of something wonder-full that I encounter.  I'm also going to open the Fresh Equation facebook page for 1 week so that you can share your pictures of the wonder-full things that you notice, discover, appreciate and are grateful for this week.  So pop over to the Fresh Equation facebook page now and share a picture of something wonder-full you came across this weekend or a comment of what you are grateful for. And what better day to start being more grateful and appreciative than today?

Happy Memorial Day
Memorial Day

Have a great day!

1 comment:

  1. i forgot the facebook page closed today! i took a picture of a basil plant a student gave me that i am very grateful and excited for!!

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