30 Days of Gratitude: Hope
We now take a break from our regularly scheduled programming for this Public Service Announcement:
Wednesday, as I was posting about my gratitude for a long-lived water heater, it occurred to me that all this gratitude might seem inappropriate, given the current string of tragic events that has befallen my city, country and planet. After all, for 19 days, I have been expressing gratitude for a lot of mundane and simple things when it could be argued that the world is going to hell in a hand basket. This has been a particularly tough week. Paris was attacked. Jamar Clark was killed during an altercation with police. MPD 4th Precinct, along with law enforcement across the country, is under siege. It was confirmed that terrorists brought down the Russian flight in Egypt. Our country’s leaders vehemently disagree on how to move this nation forward in response to these relentless terrorist acts and the ensuing refugee crisis. The rhetoric is ugly. The fear is palpable.
I began to wonder if all this gratitude was only serving to deny the reality of the chaos around us. A friend has likened my posts to Jimmy Fallon’s weekly “thank you notes” sessions. A very timely comment, given how I was feeling about it all. Yesterday I actually felt quite trite when I posted about my gratitude for my dogs. I then considered discontinuing these posts. I rationalized it as a way of demonstrating appropriate deference to things we can all agree are more important than donuts, sumac and water heaters.
But what I have learned about expressing gratitude is that it creates hope. And hope has always been something that keeps me moving forward, even when things seem to be quite dismal. I found this quote from Robert Emmons, author of Gratitude Works!: A 21-Day Program for Creating Emotional Prosperity (2013), which provided me the clarity I had been seeking:
In the midst of the economic maelstrom that has gripped our country, I have often been asked if people can - or even should - feel grateful under such dire circumstances. My response is that not only will a grateful attitude help—it is essential. In fact, it is precisely under crisis conditions when we have the most to gain by a grateful perspective on life. In the face of demoralization, gratitude has the power to energize. In the face of brokenness, gratitude has the power to heal. In the face of despair, gratitude has the power to bring hope. In other words, gratitude can help us cope with hard times.
In a quaint gift shop in Athens, GA, I discovered a little book titled “Mr. Rabbit’s Symphony of Nature." It is a beautiful story of animals with different talents coming together to perform music. Its message of hope resonated with me. With the changing of the seasons, we always hope for new life in the springtime.
So with 10 days left on this project, I will continue to find things for which to be grateful. Maybe it’s naïve. Maybe it is trite. But for now, it is my coping mechanism. And as the days continue to grow shorter and colder, I will remain steadfast in my hope for better times ahead.