This is just a short bit. It is almost a new year and a time when we may find ourselves looking back and looking forward in a way we perhaps rarely do. Sometimes, I suppose, we hardly want to look back if the year has been a hard one for us - illness, sorrow, financial problems - whatever troubles our lives. Looking forward is always a hopeful thing I think but a bit unsubstantial because life never quite goes where we had hoped it might. Sometimes it is even more wonderful than we dreamed; sometimes it is a bit worse.
But in all this: the good, the hard, the unexpected, I believe that it can all be seen with a heart of gratitude. Does that seem odd when you are faced with hardship? sorrow? terrible difficulties? It isn't that it makes light of hardship or that it is in any way a good thing but that somehow, a gift of gratitude lightens the burden of our sorrow. It is still sorrow but it is lightened by a sense that there is much that we can be grateful for - perhaps most especially that we are loved and cherished by our God.
Someone recently sent this link which I found expressed all that I might want to say about gratitude and joy and my hope for today and tomorrow and the coming year. http://clicks.robertgenn.com/critique-self.php . Watch it full-screen if you can.
2 comments:
Thanks for the heartwarming and inspiring link! I think being open to all the wonderful things around us and being grateful for them is one of the best ways to increase our own joy and happiness and that of others.
I have followed Robert Genn, the artist's blog, for some time now. It's beautiful! Hollee C. passed a link on to me so that I might enjoy your writing...and I did. I will follow your words now...and wish you a blessed and marvelous new year!
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