Thoughts on gratitude

In the US, we’re all going to be hearing about gratitude in the coming weeks until the end of the year.

Gratitude is the ability to see where you are now vs. where you’ve been. We can acknowledge this with our brains, but where we really want to feel it is in our guts and hearts. Gratitude can show up in our bodies – it’s where it’s most pleasurable probably – but you shouldn’t count on it always. Gratitude doesn’t always arrive as a feeling, a chill down your spine, a warmth in your belly. Sometimes our heads need to do the hard work of acknowledging where we’ve been and where we are. What we had and what we have. So if you’re waiting for the feeling to show up to experience gratitude, there’s no need to wait. You can manufacture it today.

I will share a simple poem from one of my favorite American authors, Kurt Vonnegut, writing about an insight he received from Joseph Heller (of Catch-22 fame). Here’s Joe Heller.

***

True story, Word of Honor:

Joseph Heller, an important and funny writer

now dead,

and I were at a party given by a billionaire

on Shelter Island.

I said, "Joe, how does it make you feel

to know that our host only yesterday

may have made more money

than your novel 'Catch-22’

has earned in its entire history?"

And Joe said, "I've got something he can never have."

And I said, "What on earth could that be, Joe?"

And Joe said, "The knowledge that I've got enough."

Not bad! Rest in peace!

***

RIP Kurt and Joseph and my grandmother, and happy Thanksgiving and holidays to all of you. I’m grateful for your giving me an audience this year, for your business, and for your supportive words and actions. I’ve got enough this year, and I hope you do too.

Go get ‘em this week.