Is this a sign of the times, or just good advertising? A papeleria in Loreto, Mexico offers a choice: paper or scissors, with a serving of nice.

RITUALS TO BELIEVE IN

I do believe in the ritual.

— Linda Gregg, from The Light Continues

Wake slow.

Give thanks.

Drink coffee.

Make a list.

Nod to neighbors

and strangers too.

Open a door.

Say please often,

thank you more.

Share a meal.

At night in the

slow drift to sleep

see the faces of

those you love

and let that love

be balm,

be action,

be prayer.

— Drew Myron

It’s Thankful Thursday, a weekly pause to express appreciation for people, places, things, and more. Attention attracts gratitude and gratitude expands joy.

We need some joy, don’t we? A world at war. Calculated violence, random cruelty, economic uncertainty. Every moment seems escalation of another crisis.

How to handle the erosion of equanimity? I don’t know. Hope, prayer, art? I can’t, won’t, tune out the news and noise but I do look for a counter to the crush of negativity. I look for the good.

That’s the heart of gratitude.

“The most valuable thing to me in terms of my mental health,” says Charlie Kaufman,* my favorite film director, “is to read a poem or see a painting or listen to music which speaks to me, which breaks me open for a moment.”

Sometimes that moment is a mural spotted in a busy city. Or the sound of children singing as you walk by a school. Or church bells ringing. Or a hot coffee at your favorite cafe. Or a clean canvas, a fresh journal, a mound of clay.

The world is full of small moments. Seek and hold. Find the good.

Please join me.

What are you thankful for today?

* Charlie Kaufman is the director of Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Synedoche, New York, Firefly (with poet Eva H.D.), and (my personal favorite) I'm Thinking of Ending Things.