It’s Thankful Thursday, a weekly pause to express appreciation for people, places, things, and more.
Attention attracts gratitude, and gratitude expands joy, and joy leads to more appreciation. In this powerful loop, we look for small daily pleasures and our perspective shifts, and our attitude, too.
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The other day, I stumbled upon, “You, If No One Else,” and it felt like the poem had found me when I needed it most. The poem, by Tino Villanueva, was published in 1994 and experienced a resurgence in recent years.
You know how it goes with when time and circumstance meet in synchronicity: you make a new friend, read a good book, find a great poem. In the 1990s, the buzz phrase was, There are no accidents. (“Visualize Whirled Peas” was also a popular at the time).
It’s still hokey, but kinda true.
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Because so much seems bad, I’ve been looking for the good.
Along with everyday annoyances (greedy corporations, grocery prices, health care hoops, people without empathy . . . ), politics are sinking my spirit and sapping my strength. I’m trying, I’m trying, I’m trying to see the good.
And then I found this nugget:
“If I want to have loving feelings (instead of doom, judgment and paranoia) I just have to do loving things.” — Anne Lamott
Oof, there you go. Simple and true.
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The other day, while pacing the crossroad of overwhelm and despair, it struck me that no one was going to save me.
Most of us come to this realization early in life. As young adults it dawns on us that a parent or teacher or “person in charge” is not marching in to save the day.
So we grasp and grow and become increasingly self-sufficient. We accomplish, achieve, and feel the power of can-do. We learn this early and then repeat, repeat, repeat.
But some of us (me) get lazy. We rely on a partner, a friend, someone with knowledge, access, or power, to take care of business, to make things right.
But I have to keep learning the work of self-sufficiency, to dust off and walk away from wallow and tears. The message is pressing and clear: we have to get out of the self to feel the power of self.
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Anne is right, and so is Tino.
It’s up to you and you and you, which is to say me, you, us.
Be the change. Remember that one?
Still true.
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This tough-love talk has been brought to you (and me) by Thankful Thursday.
Today I am thankful for poems and people who urge me into action.
What are you thankful for today?