Breathe Gratitude

Thanksgiving with turkey and football, as we know it in the US, might be already behind us, but the theme of gratitude is still lingering in my mind. If you had read my “Happy Thanksgiving!” post from November last year, you might notice a drastic change of attitude. A year ago, I couldn’t wait for the whole Thanksgiving affair to be over and I was frustrated with the notion of thankfulness. This year I seem to be overflowing with gratefulness.

Last year, I approached Thanksgiving reluctantly, as a forced upon me necessity. I was fatigued, but I committed to cleaning the house spotless and cooking a traditional dinner for my family and friends, in the name of tradition and because the more the merrier. On top of that, there was my struggle to verbalize gratitude. Deep down, I knew practising gratitude was healthy, and there were many things I was grateful for, yet putting my gratitude into words filled me with scruples. In the end, the only safe thing I came up with was being thankful for breathing because it was such a great way to stay calm.This Thanksgiving couldn’t be more different.

Instead of cooking for my family and friends, which I almost volunteered to do, as if by the force of habit, we rented a cabin a few hours’ drive away and explored the abundant hiking trails in the area. Instead of a festive and traditional dinner, we enjoyed a selection of store-bought ravioli and a delicious pecan pie, followed by board games and movies. I can’t speak for all of us, but, to me, our modest cabin dinner was one of the best Thanksgivings. I felt at peace and I felt grateful. I was even able to talk about my gratitude during the evening.

When we came back home, I went to the store to replenish our food supplies: unfortunately, no holiday cooking meant no leftovers. As I was waiting to pay for my groceries, I glanced at the magazines by the checkout. One cover caught my attention. Actually, it was just two words on the cover: Breathe Gratitude. I couldn't believe it.

Last year, I named breathing the ultimate thing that I was grateful for. Even for me, the way I phrased it was awkward, almost cheesy. This year I finally found out what was wrong with it. Simply, I focused on a wrong verb. All this time, I thought that practising gratitude meant verbalizing it. This year I realized that I don’t have to talk gratitude to practise it. I can just breathe it.