"Thanks for everything..." from an ancient Chinese tale

Learning to be grateful is a process. I've been in that process for awhile now, and it has profoundly changed the way I accept people and events in my life.
About a year ago, at the suggestion of a good friend, I began to take a few moments each day to write a list of 5 things for which I am grateful. Soon after I began this practice, I noticed that my "eyes were opened!"
I've spent a lot of time in my life wrapped up in my own thoughts, my own reflections. In many ways, that's been a gift - to me, and to the world. On the other hand, it has also been my downfall. I can walk past beauty - a newly blooming rose bush, for example - for weeks before I notice.
When I began to take a few moments each day to write a list of things for which I am grateful, I began to look around me much more carefully. I've always loved beauty, but now I relish in beauty: a fragrance, the color of common things, my little black and white cat's tail held high in the air, the tree outside my window blowing in the wind and the sunlight. When I become aware of these things, I take a few moments to enjoy them as well as to notice them.
And my gratefulness is stretching, I've noticed. I have started to add to my list each day people and events in my life that aren't as enjoyable as other things: the traffic jam I got caught in yesterday afternoon, someone in my life who is difficult, the unanswered questions.
The truth is, I don't know why these difficult things are in my life. The truth is, I can be grateful I'm not living with the sound of gunshots or bombs dropping on my street. The truth is, I have plenty to eat in a world where many have nothing, not even a drop of water for a child. But this is not about comparing my difficulties to others. That's another topic, some day.

This is about me being grateful for whatever is part of my life. How can I judge whether it is "good" or "bad"? All I can really do is to accept. Gratefulness leads me to acceptance. Gratefulness leads me to love - to love someone who otherwise leaves me grumbling. Gratefulness leads me to calm, to peace.

Warmly,
meb