The Power of Gratitude

Recently, I’m hearing and reading many references to the practice of gratitude, which leads me to consider the built-in blessings of developing a habit of being grateful, even living a life of gratitude. My own experience tells me being grateful is perhaps the most powerful and the quickest way to shoo negativity in the opposite direction. An often-lived example of that is the inevitable presence of rejection that writers deal with constantly. How do writers learn to cope with sometimes daily rejection? Or, by looking at rejection from another perspective, I wonder if veteran writers come to a place where rejections are welcomed because they often include little gifts. When an editor or agent adds personal notes beyond a standard form letter rejection, that’s Gift with a capital G. Any comments about the writing can be viewed as invitations to look at the writing again and consider making changes in the direction of the feedback. Or disregarding the comments because you don’t believe ihey would enhance the piece—being proactive about your own writing.

Another way to think about rejection or other forms of what we might consider negative, is to acknowledge that the contrast between good and bad, sad and happy, negative and positive, love and indifference, etc., etc., is what fuels our response to being grateful. If we didn’t have down times or setbacks or obstacles to overcome, how would we know when things go well and we’re balanced and even happy? Now that’s a real test for being grateful, but one that makes good sense to me. So, this week, this time of thanks-giving, when the gravy burns and the guests are late and Uncle Sam and Cousin Jane get into blaming each other for their problems, take a deep breath and walk away—or be brave and say, “You know, Uncle Sam and Cousin Jane, if you didn’t get into arguments, we wouldn’t be so grateful when you finish and instead, share stories and hug each other!”