“The heart that is constantly overflowing with gratitude will be safe from those attacks of resentfulness and gloom that bother so many persons”
Day 5 — A Focus on Community or Place of Worship… and as I sat to share the post for today, my mind was just elsewhere. So I had to flow that way. Recent events in my community had “complaints” brewing in my spirit so I wrote a little about it on Facebook…
“What do you do with emotions – strong ones, almost despairing ones, while on a journey of gratitude and no complaining? You process the facts, the reality, as objectively as possible, you might even cry a bit. You think of/get involved in solutions to the “problem” and you find a way to remain optimistic. That part is tricky.
How does an illegal choke-hold death of an unarmed person that was classified as homicide (death at the hands of another) by the ME not result in some serious consequences for the offender – who happens to be a public employee/protector of the people? Given recent outcomes and our history, perhaps the surprise is naive. I don’t know.
But what I do know though is that we can’t have evil win by loosing our own internal power to fight this horror. We loose our power through raw anger and hate, callous generalizing (like racism) and misinformation.
So I will stay on my journey and find something to be grateful for among all this chaos and pain. And as best I can be part of the solution, not the problem. Prayers alone without action will not work. But the actions must be guided and informed by Love. A very tough task when rage is real. Not too tough for God/Love though.
Peace & Love to you…”
Second attempt:
Day 5 — Today let us focus on our community life and/or, our place of worship. What are you most grateful for in your community? For me, I am grateful for the gardens and the hint of sunrise above the trees, the kind neighbors and the animals all around.
What about you? And if you have a place of worship — what are you grateful for about that community/family of members?
Before we can be an agent of change in any community we have to first love it and be grateful for it on some level. The same with self change really. Start with love and gratitude and the needed changes will be easier to discern and facilitate. Sow with love, we will reap love.
AFFIRM: I AM GRATEFUL for and, I LOVE my community!
Tip: To facilitate change in your community, turn your complaints into passionate statements of both observation and commitment… see what needs to improve, speak on it and get involved in the process. Keep the negativity, name calling and whining (being stuck) out of the conversation.
Sending you love and a prayer for peace, grace and forgiveness…
~~~♥~~~
P.S — On complaining…
NO Complaining — is not a ‘pie in the sky, everything is perfect and positive about life’ posture and mindset. That is delusional.
A mindset of complaint is one that gets stuck in negativity, it whines and is circular… like a stuck machine or, in the days of vinyl records how the needle got stuck… those old enough, you remember that? Complaining and the mindset of complaining is like that. It is not forward moving and solution finding. It is stuck in pain or rage or anger or…
We can — and actually have a responsibility to — identify things in our world/community that are wrong, destructive or, just not just. What we do with what we find is up to us. Whine and complain about it or inform and find solutions for it?
The mere complaint comes from a weakened spirit with no lasting forward and positive motion.
The engaged citizen is potent and empowered to be a change agent…with love as the guide, always. Gratitude has a real place in change…
I had to write that out for my own use – hope it helps…
