Brick by Brick

Living gratefully today, I offer appreciation for humidifiers, night lights, and the fine folks who make the Insight Timer app available and easy to navigate.

Line by line, gratitude by gratitude, breath by breath, writing down the mundane and profound gifts in daily life has been a major transformative practice in my life for nearly three decades. Sometimes the lines form poems like the one above.

My search for the good in life, the things that are going well, the grace unearned, was first inspired by a motivation to counter the self-pity that showed up as my default thinking mode on a regular basis. It has become so much more. Thought by thought, a healthier perception of myself and the surrounding world has opened my eyes, mind, soul, and heart.

Action by action, I am building resilience and fortitude that are available when life’s significant and insignificant challenges come along. This is not fluff, putting blinders on, or the stuff of pollyanna. This is daily work for my daily disease of alcoholism. And the dis-ease that afflicts us all at least some of the time. Being human is like that.

Choice by choice, I can bring good energy or drain it. I can contribute to a world that needs us each to show up daily and be a decent person. Or I can retreat into wrong-sized ego, lots of fear, and become an obstacle to myself and others.

Breath by breath. Brick by brick. Steadier mindset. More welcoming emotions. Practice makes progress possible. And it delivers good energy.