One of these creatures in particular had a significant impact on me and my development of faith and gratitude. It is The Witch of Secret Good Deeds, her image is on the book cover if you click on the link above and her poem is this:
Sometimes there are
people who feel that
nobody cares about
them. They want
people to love them
but nobody does. On
the outside they look
ugly and witchlike.
They are witches, but
they are good, and
you never know it.
They make you see
your watch when
you have lost it. They
put another cookie in
the bag when you thought
it was empty. They
get you home safely
on dark nights and
do other good deeds.
But no one knows of these
good things. No one loves
them, and they are
very, very sad.
This poem and image was the beginning of my habit of whispering "thank you" when something goes right. My little heart broke when I thought of these poor witches who are so sad and crying and are unloved. I have definitely found another cookie in the bag when I thought they were gone. I resolved then and there to never take that for granted again.
There are so many times when things have gone well when the chances that they would were very low. I would put these witches and guardian angels on the same level - I think they do their best to help us live safely and happily and I thank them for their part in my life.
What has inspired you to be grateful?
I'm reposting a comment from Wilma (http://www.wilmasblog.com):
ReplyDelete"Oh Daphne that is not an easy question to answer. For me it has been a long involved process to really getting how important seeing beyond appearances into the beauty of life is and then live it.
However I can just stop working for a minute and seeing a flower or watching a spider and that brings me back to being grateful for the wonder of life.
On the bigger scale being grateful for living is making me desiring to make the most fo my life and like you going for doing things effectively like your first days of 2010. If you are grateful you do not desire to waste time with complaints and ineffectiveness and dragging the chain."
I responded: "Wilma, I think it will be a long process for most people. I love what you said about stopping and watching the wonder of life around us. It takes a conscious effort to do that these days, and I think we should more often. Gratitude definitely helps us remember what is most important. Thank you so much for your comment!"
I'm reposting a comment from Kate (http://newlywedandunemployed.blogspot.com):
ReplyDelete"Being able to heal, actually. I've been grateful for that one for a long time. Not that I've ever been unable to heal, but once, I had a really bad wound down to the meat and it occured to me how much life would suck if our bodies couldn't heal!
Also, I make sure to express a lot of vocal gratitude for my working car. I try not to talk poorly about it and I do my best not to turn down opportunities to help other people with it in order to show the Universe that I'm grateful and won't be selfish about my blessings.
Maybe this sounds silly, but it helps me make gratitude a more conscious decision."
I responded: "Kate, that's a great way to treat gratitude, making it a conscious decision. It's amazing how little we end up complaining about things when we make an effort to be grateful, like you said about your car. I think that's a wonderful reminder to all of us to stop and look around and see how much actually goes right. Thank you so much for your thougthful comment."