A Reminder About Being Grateful

I've mentioned Tending Your Inner Garden before. I've enjoyed their weekend retreats and a year of monthly dinner meetings, I read their blog, and I get regular journal prompts in my e-mail.
Deb's journal prompt yesterday really spoke to me: "Do you value what you already have?"  She talked about a challenging day she had this week and how her day hadn't gone the way she planned it. I particularly liked what she said about resolutions: "I can make all the resolutions I want, but Spirit has Her own ideas, helping me kick up anything from dirt clods to rose petals as I head down my path."
Need I mention that Deb is a talented author? She said she was looking out the window at the bare trees against the snow, but did she really see their stark beauty? That reminded me of all the pictures I take.

Too often I am in such a rush to get a picture of the gorgeous sunset, I don't take the time to be grateful for it.

With the recent COLD weather, there is one thing I find myself being thankful for every morning - central heat!
We turn the furnace down pretty low every night so it is chilly when I get up. One of the first things I do is touch that thermostat up! Then I think about when I was a kid and we only had an oil burner in the living room and how cold it was upstairs where we slept. And I am grateful every day that I have a home. I am warm. I have food. And I am comparatively healthy.

Deb went on to say that valuing our lives goes beyond gratitude. "It calls on our capacity for mindfulness, thoughtful attention, and understanding how everything we've ever experienced has worked toward the good of where we are right now."

I honestly do think I appreciate the people and things in my life, but maybe that is just my ego talking. Do I really value what I already have? Am I mindful and present in my thankfulness? Do I even think for a second when I am taking all those pictures how lucky I am to have a camera, let alone live in such a beautiful, safe world?

Yesterday was a rare warm January day, but the temps are going back down. I will know a moment of gratitude each morning as I touch that thermostat up, but can I extend that moment to all the others of my life?