✨ THE LIGHT OF GRATITUDE ✨

I have always been entranced
by the embers of a fire.

Those tiny points of light glowing
against the darkness of a woodsy landscape.
They seem almost insignificant, and yet
they hold my attention completely.
There is something mesmerizing
about the warmth and light
they continue to carry.

Gratitude
feels something like that
to me.

As I became a full-fledged adult,
life became fuller, busier, and
more complicated.

There were things to navigate
that could alter my livelihood, my comfort,
and my sense of certainty.

And gratitude became
a beacon of light for me,
a place I could return to
when life felt
uncertain.

I have learned that gratitude
doesn’t always come first.

Sometimes there is confusion,
hurt, disappointment,
and grief.

Sometimes I need to
move through all of that first
before I can find my way back.

I find gratitude now
in things I once overlooked –
an open stretch of time,
a day without an agenda,
the freedom to read,
create, and wander.

I used to feel an urgency,
as if I always needed to complete things,
as if my productivity would allow me
to fully access my expression,
feeling, and experience
of gratitude.

There is something
freeing about allowing a day
to unfold without needing
to fill every moment.

This is what has changed most for me.

Gratitude has become
less about having the life I imagined,
and more about recognizing
the life that is here.
Right now, in this present moment.

I still wonder why I sometimes have to move
through so much before I can feel a semblance of
gratitude for the life I’ve made for myself.

Maybe I don’t need to know.

Maybe it is enough to
notice the embers,
to recognize the light
when I find it.

And to feel grateful
that it is still
glowing.

✨ 🤍 ✨