It was almost completely dark. Not a sound was heard except the pattering of the rain on the leaves of the trees. I felt the tears on my face, but they left me cold and without comfort. Every where I looked I saw grey and black as I shivered in the storm.
I walked in familiar woods – it all looked the same as before, but even bleaker now. Then suddenly and without warning, it appeared like a small candle piercing through the darkness. “What is that?” I asked. I had happened to look up in a tree and saw a small bird trying to get a stick that he was going to use to build a nest into a small hole. The stick was 3 times as big as he was, but he was doing it anyway. Nothing was going to stop him; not even the rainstorm. He looked so sweet and innocent in his task. Even though his feathers were a dull, light brown color – nothing flamboyant – he struck me as one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen.
As I fully focused on him while he picked up stick after large stick to fill his nest, I felt such gratitude to be privy to such an instinctual act; such a marvel of nature. It was nothing grand or complex. It was a simple act of a bird in nature, but my appreciation grew a hundredfold just by holding his preciousness to be as precious as my own breath. Observing him touched something so deep within that I suddenly welled up with tears of joy. This joy came from the admiration, appreciation, and the gratitude for being given a singular moment of perfect connection with nature.
When we find ourselves in a place of sadness, fear, grief, or loneliness that paints us into a landscape of bleakness and emptiness, feeling gratitude for the smallest of things can bring back hope and joy. It is with that resurgence that we can begin to see the world through a rosier pair of glasses.
It’s amazing how fully seeing, feeling, and embracing the smallest of things can bring us joy that can fill a vast void. It’s as though our total appreciation of them expands to encompass our whole being, bringing us to a place of feeling happiness and hope again. It’s the magic of gratitude.
The more we focus on the small bits of joy and beauty, the more our being can expand into this magical place. This joy and hope can become contagious and can turn the sour into the sweet.
I dare you to find one thing of beauty and let it fill you up. Then watch what happens…
Magic, magic, and more magic.
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