.....grateful for oranges

Yogis,
It’s always this time of year we are asked about gratitude. If we aren’t prepared, there is that moment of hesitation while we quickly try to think of what we are grateful for. Family….friends…..our health are the ones that typically roll off the tongue. Ok, what else? Uh. Hmm. Let me think about that while I stutter.

It reminds me of those big old cars on a cold winter morning. You would turn the key and the engine revs and then stops. Again with the key. This dance repeating for a few rounds until it turns over. Then like a deep cough it sputters as we ease our foot on the gas pedal, until finally it begins to hum.

For our gratitude engine to hum we need practice. The once a year dinner conversation just won’t cut it.

Indeed we are grateful for our friends, family and health, but if we didn’t have those would our gratitude engine stall? Without practice it may indeed. Gratitude is like a multi layered cake and those are the icing on top, but without digging down deeper we will miss all of the other pleasures waiting right on our plate.

Gratitude is not a thought. It cannot be practiced with the mind. Gratitude is an energy found in the area of the heart and when we feel it, we know it.  So how do we get it humming?

I look out the window. Letting my eyes relax I shift from looking to seeing. There is my garden as it prepares itself for winter. The garden brings me enormous joy and has been my profound teacher. I am so grateful for my garden. I see my firepit where we gather for drum circles, goddess events and full moon celebrations. It is beautiful. Grateful for my firepit. A fox. The blue sky. Oh, how grateful I am for the color blue! Bright red berries on the holly. Clouds. In order to awaken gratitude, I must ‘see’.

I stand sill and listen. The heat kicks on. Extremely grateful for heat. The sounds of sparrows in my front bushes as they chatter amongst themselves. What would the world be without birds! Owls, heron, the red cardinal against the snow, hawks soaring overhead.  The song of the wren. Deeply thankful for birds. The ticking of my favorite clock, the whistle of my tea kettle. Thunder. Music….how could I possibly forget music! In order to awaken gratitude, I must ‘hear’.

Last year I fell in love with mandarin oranges, eating two each day. Citrus is a winter fruit, so I have been holding off buying a bag this year until now. I peel one and place the first juicy slice on my tongue. Ahhhh….I am grateful for oranges. Each morning my mouth anticipates the warm water with fresh lemon and ginger slices. Dark chocolate. Thank you basil, sweet potatoes, avocados…..grateful, grateful, grateful. To awaken gratitude, I must ‘taste’.

I must ‘smell’. The calming comfort lavender oil has brought me over the years. Running my fingers through rosemary. Dinner cooking on the stove. A fire in the fireplace. A baby after a bath. The smell of rain and the ocean. Oh, and pine trees! And I must ‘feel’. Grass under my bare feet. Soaking in the tub with bath salts. Feeling sexy. Thank you crisp clean sheets and breeze through the open window!

Gratitude is found in being here. Awakening to this moment in this day. Over and over and over. This extraordinary world that we call home has infinite possibilities to keep our gratitude engine well oiled when we notice.

To me, the poet Mary Oliver sums it up perfectly. ‘Instructions for living a life. Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.’

I am telling about it,
SARAH