On gratitude.

It seems an overarching theme for all the thoughts I had for this issue of shine + soar is gratitude. Personally, I have found it to be one of the most life-changing, life-sustaining, and life-enriching emotions available to us. Shifting my mindset to one of seeking appreciation instead of complaint has helped me find joy and resilience in my every day life. I’m certainly not perfect at this - I still am prone to wallowing in my own self-pity from time to time, but overall, find I am much happier and much more able to face the obstacle of Life when I take a mindfully grateful approach.

It’s not difficult to do, either. Honestly, it just takes practice. Mindful practice - retraining habitual thought patterns away from find all that is wrong to digging through the debris to find what was good about any given situation. Given time and focus, it becomes easier to find value and something positive in just about any challenge one may face.

Just as one final tie-in to the Gospel According to Walt, one of my favorite lines of his work states very simply “As for me, I know of nothing else but miracles.”

That’s it. I truly hope you seek, find, and enjoy the miraculous.