2/13/2017–It’s a different challenge to be grateful while rich vs poor or even while simply comfortable. It may even be more challenging to practice gratitude because true gratitude calls for appreciating each thing you have, not all you have. So, having more things means practicing gratitude for more things, which sounds like it’d be taxing.
Living in gratitude, to me, includes little waste, and little ownership. To minimize waste, I try to keep purchases few which allows me to be more easily grateful for each item I have. I feel like I can get away with saying I don’t buy much since I get made fun of for how little I own (like just having a mattress without a bed). Some call this type of living minimalism, but I don’t think I qualify for that title compared to true minimalists. I have much I could give away or do without–both from a “# of things” perspective and from a “niceness/fanciness” point of view.
Regardless of how much you own or how nice your things are, I think it’s possible and worthwhile to practice gratitude. By seeking to be grateful for something, you’re kind of assigning it worth that it wouldn’t have otherwise. How valuable is a thing not valued? None valuable. Continuing, in a way your wealth increases, then, as you stoke gratitude for each thing you have. Wealth follows, not in a market-value sense, but as measured by you. Then, do you end up valuing your possessions more than anyone else would, such that you wouldn’t want to sell things you’d previously considered selling? Or, does this exercise help identify those things which you value much less than the market would, and a new revenue opportunity presents? That’s probable, and consistent with stories of minimalists I’ve heard.
So, how do you be grateful for each thing you have but then sell some of those things? Selling a thing doesn’t seem like you’re grateful for it, and certainly giving it away wouldn’t be a sign of appreciation. Can you be grateful for a thing you don’t need? Like a third-backup flashlight? Or, is gratitude best reserved for things you cannot purchase or sell? People, abilities, and ideas are worthy of gratitude–a.k.a. not taking for granted. Don’t waste those things, maintain and cultivate the few you have. Know which to prioritize and which new ones are distractions from what matters. There it is, gratitude is for each thing which can’t be bought.
We might do well to be thankful and appreciative of material things, not acquiring excess, not abusing the things we do have. These are the things we can buy–food, shelter, wall decorations, warm beds, frost on trees, and other Hallmark moments to savor. But, practical gratitude calls for a more challenging pattern of behavior. An adherence to investing in the sustainability of meaningful relationships we were given at birth; applying our God-given abilities–including health–toward growth and contribution (love, for self and others); cultivation of the ideas we receive, which aren’t necessarily voluntary thoughts. Those intangible, non-purchasable blessings are the proper north stars for gratitude. Certainly, I’m thankful (say “thanks”) for gifts and for the food on my plate. But I want to practice gratitude and dwell inside of it for the ability to work for money to buy the food. Without this distinction, true gratitude would look like only buying and eating enough to sustain–definitely less than what even my most frugal self consumes. Give thanks for and enjoy food. Show gratitude by working such that your work enables good. Truly living gratitude long precedes and extends beyond what’s on our plate. It’s for what allows the food to get there, and for what the food allows to flourish in the future.
QOTW: “A company is stronger if it is bound by love rather than by fear… If the employee comes first, then they’re happy.”
?FNW: What’s next for the idea w/Tommy?