In the work of Joanna Macy she starts with Gratitude and then goes into grief for the world, then seeing with new perspective and then into taking action. In a couple of previous posts I have written about the book: The Wisdom to Know the Difference, by Eileen Flanagan about using the Serenity prayer to try to discern whether something is a thing we can change or a thing we must accept as is. And in last month's post I talked about the significant difference in happiness of when people "compare up" vs when they "compare down".
Today I was reminded by a friend that when we live fighting the reality of the experience we are having, fighting the injustice of it, the way in which it is not what we wanted or dreamed of, that we make ourselves unhappy. (Similar to comparing up, glass half empty or not having the wisdom to know what we cannot change and must accept.) My friend reminded me of his own amazing discovery of how to actually be happy while literally in prison for decades. It starts with gratitude, counting your blessings and being truly happy for what you do in fact have. In the comparing up mode we discount our blessings seeing them as "normal" and "as it should be" - thus not of importance or value.
All this begs the question of what is in fact changeable. It is possible to live as if everything we encounter just is, and we have no personal power and must just endeavor to be happy in an injust and immoral society. I would argue that that way of living is as much a cop out as deciding to me miserable by fighting everything happening in our lives. It would seem to me that when we can ground in gratitude and learn to be happy there is a slack from which we can see what step might be before us for justice and try to take that step. If we can take actions for justice from a place of non attachment then we are either devastated or ego stroked by our outcomes. We are just faithful.
Many years ago a friend wrote me around Thanksgiving time that she was playing the "Thanksgiving game" on a daily basis. This was a woman who was in grave danger of loosing her eyesite entirely, but she was noticing what to be thankful for each day. I notice another one of my Facebook Friends, a climate activist is posting something she is grateful for each day. These are inspiring examples to me of people remembering to count their blessings.
