Ingratitude Practice
This is from facebook:
I posted a link to an article recommending ingratitude practice: listing the things in your life that you are really ungrateful for. This was an alternative to the more common gratitude practice. I've thought about this and have come up with a list of things I am not grateful for: (1) world politics, especially US politics, (2) global warming and environmental degradation, (3) growing old. We are supposed to accept aging with grace and wisdom. Can't do it. I saw my doctor for a checkup a couple of months back and told her about a friend who had died. I said this reminded me that life is fragile. The doc said, "Yes." I added, at my age the statistics are not in my favor. The doc said, "Yes." So there we have it. What is good about this situation? It makes me crabby.
Usually I do the gratitude practice. But reminding myself of the things which really bother me is useful. How does one make a good life in an environment that is in many ways hostile? This is where where mindfullness is useful. Often, it's small things that give pleasure -- or at least things smaller than world politics. My new haircut. My friends. Writing. Sunflowers blooming along the local freeways. The prospect of a meal out on Sunday. Once this move is over, I think Patrick and I should drive to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and look at lighthouses -- and the lake, of course. Both lakes.
Friends are not small, by the way. Neither is writing. Actually, neither are sunflowers. Neither is the Farmers Market. I need to get dressed and go out and buy bread. The choices are traditional Irish soda bread and wild rice bread. A difficult choice.
I posted a link to an article recommending ingratitude practice: listing the things in your life that you are really ungrateful for. This was an alternative to the more common gratitude practice. I've thought about this and have come up with a list of things I am not grateful for: (1) world politics, especially US politics, (2) global warming and environmental degradation, (3) growing old. We are supposed to accept aging with grace and wisdom. Can't do it. I saw my doctor for a checkup a couple of months back and told her about a friend who had died. I said this reminded me that life is fragile. The doc said, "Yes." I added, at my age the statistics are not in my favor. The doc said, "Yes." So there we have it. What is good about this situation? It makes me crabby.
Usually I do the gratitude practice. But reminding myself of the things which really bother me is useful. How does one make a good life in an environment that is in many ways hostile? This is where where mindfullness is useful. Often, it's small things that give pleasure -- or at least things smaller than world politics. My new haircut. My friends. Writing. Sunflowers blooming along the local freeways. The prospect of a meal out on Sunday. Once this move is over, I think Patrick and I should drive to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and look at lighthouses -- and the lake, of course. Both lakes.
Friends are not small, by the way. Neither is writing. Actually, neither are sunflowers. Neither is the Farmers Market. I need to get dressed and go out and buy bread. The choices are traditional Irish soda bread and wild rice bread. A difficult choice.
posted by Eleanor at 5:04 PM
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