Gratitude

I really find that gratitude is one of the things that I have to remember to find time for.  Not that I'm not grateful, just that, like so many people, I'm so focused on what I have to do and where I want to be in life that I forget to take the time to appreciate what I have.

I remember in early sobriety being grateful is not always easy.  Many of us have lost jobs, family contact, relationships, property, sometimes we don't even have a place to live.  There can be times that even being alive seems like more of a burden than a blessing.

You don't have to be grateful for everything, especially at first.  Try just being grateful for how pretty the moon, the sunrise, the sunset looks.  Be grateful that you can walk, or see, if you are able to do those things. 

Eventually, as we get some sober time under our belts, it becomes easier to be grateful, we have some things back, perhaps a job, a new chance at a relationship, better relations with our family. 

And then we are back to living life all the time, and not so focused all the time on recovery.  This is when it becomes easy to not be grateful.  To get caught up in the day to day of living and wanting; the better job, the newer car, the bigger TV.  Now I'm as guilty as anyone of this. 

Fortunately, my Spirit Guides know that I easily get caught up in day to day living and they frequently send me reminders.  I don't drive so I walk a little over a mile to get to work 3 nights a week. Almost every nite the moon is out in all her glory.  Even when she isn't out, she is there, lighting up unique and beautiful patterns in the clouds!!

Seeing the moon as I'm walking to work, reminds me how lucky I am to have a great job, hell in this economy, any job is reason to be grateful.  It also reminds me I can walk, I can see, I can do anything!! All reasons to be grateful.

And there are more reasons when I get home.  My two cats, Googles and Silva, greet me at the door happy to see me.  I have two little creatures that depend on me, that I am now able to take very good care of, since I'm sober, and that love me.  I also have a fairly decent apartment.  Its nothing great, in fact I am hoping to move in the next few months to something better, but its someplace warm and safe at night.  Someplace I can afford to stay, that gave me a place to live while I reached a point in my recovery where it is time to reach for something more. 

Most importantly I am grateful that I am sober and have the nearly 4 years under my belt that I do.  Being sober gave me all those other gifts that I have every day.  After all, if I'd kept drinking I"d be dead by now I'm sure, either from the alcohol or at my own hand.

 Instead, I have a life and both the ability and opportunity to continue bettering myself.  I will finish my accounting degree if not in the fall, then in the spring, I have this blog, and a small daily blog on www.keen.com/HelpfulTeresa where I just post a daily inspiration and my interpretation of it.  I am also building up a decent business doing my psychic readings.  And I am becoming closer to my Spirit Guide(s) and better at my craft on a daily basis.

Truly, I just need to take the time every day to remember all these blessings and to focus on them instead of any negatives that may have happened to me that day!!

Blessed Be!