The Stages Of Gratitude
I’m not entirely sure about this, but I feel like getting older makes you more thankful.
When you’re a child, you have this completely reasonable expectation that all of your shit is just taken care of for you. You assume that the world just revolves around your happiness, and for a while it seems like it certainly does. Gratitude isn’t on your radar, because you just require your needs being met since you aren’t able to meet them on your own. It’s your responsibility to grow and learn and become.
And then you’re a young adult, and you are thankful for some things, but you also feel this insane sense of invincibility that makes it hard to pause and be grateful for the people in your life, and your health, and the ability to stay out drinking all night, nap for an hour, brush it off and go to work at a reasonable functionality the next day.
And then you become middle age, and you maybe have children of your own, and you start to learn what it is to appreciate something just for existing. Or maybe you see your grandparents and parents starting to age, and you realize that time is no longer infinite like it was in your youth. And that you need to soak in the moments around you and be thankful for the time you have to love and be loved on this earth. Or maybe you start to see your friends struggle with their health, or their relationships, or addictions, or traumas, and you start to feel this quiet gratitude for the simplicity of your own life. For the lack of adversity. For the lack of conflict or illness or things to be afraid of.
You read the news and start to realize how important your civil and human rights are, and how they can be at risk in an instant. You are thankful that you have the privilege of living in the community you do, with basic comforts like running water and electricity and too much food on your plate.
Maybe it’s a maturity, or maybe it’s perspective that leads to this gradual understanding of what true gratitude is. When I ask my tiny humans what they are thankful for they think it relates mostly to *things*, but in my world it relates more to *them* and feelings and purpose.
To all of my people, I am thankful for you. For having you in my life and for the things I’ve learned from loving you all. To the ones I’ve lost, I am thankful that I have grief to remind me of love. To the ones who are struggling, I am thankful for the reminder to appreciate and invest in the important things in my life. To the clock of life that seems to be moving faster, I am thankful for the reminder to love each moment and for all the memories that creates.
Happy Thanksgiving, Bitches. x