Gratitude: A How-To Guide

Gratitude isn’t about pretending that everything’s perfect, when it isn’t; or about refusing to recognize–and thus arm ourselves to effectively deal with–the real problems in our lives.  The first is insanity; the second is cowardice.  Only someone who’s completely out of touch with reality responds to every situation in the exact same way.  Being “happy all the time,” regardless of one’s circumstances, is being fake.  To others but, worst of all, to yourself.  Real happiness isn’t that cheap.  And pretending everything’s fine is, past a point, also a means by which those with no real moral courage convince themselves that there’s “nothing they can do” or, conversely, nothing they need to do.  No.  Gratitude is about choosing to interpret the events of your life through a different lens.  The lens of this is an opportunity rather than the lens of, this is an excuse to feel sorry for myself.

So, take the following list.  I’m not pretending that these things don’t suck; I’m saying, there’s something in them to feel good about.  Something in them that’s inspiring.

This morning, I broke my foot.  Well, hey.  My primary occupation is sedentary; this would be a lot worse if I danced for a living, or were in construction.  I can write, and edit, sitting down, with no real loss of productivity.  Moreover, I have family members who love me and are willing to do things like bring me snacks so I don’t have to keep getting up.  And hey, I have snacks!  And a roof over my head!  And my house is in a safe place, where I can work outside on the porch with no fear of anything happening to me–unlike much of the world’s population!  And I have access to excellent medical care.  Hey, this really isn’t so bad.
My son took advantage of my condition to smear poop all over the walls.  Well, it’s only poop and poop washes off.  He, too, is happy and healthy and safe.  He didn’t do it to spite me; toddlers are incapable of real spite.  He’s just expressing his creative spirit.  Hooray, I’m glad he has such a creative spirit!
Money is tight right now.  Which is to be expected, when you switch careers.  We have what we need and, most importantly, we have each other.  Mr. PJ is gainfully employed.  Money comes and goes, but the opportunity to wake up every morning excited to do what you love and share that with the world is worth more than any check for any amount.

See?  Everything’s fine.  I finished reviewing the galleys for I Look Like This Because I’m A Writer, and now I’m going to switch gears and start editing the sequel to The Price of Desire.  I had written both books, originally, last summer, while I was bedridden with a serious illness and thus had plenty of time on my hands–and no real ability to do anything that involved more than sitting up.  I spent the next few months trying to court an agent and, when that failed, I decided to go out on my own.  And then I realized, hey, I can also help other people!  So that was pretty awesome, and that’s when I and a couple of other folks decided to start Evil Toad Press.  The upside is that I have a lot more material waiting in the wings and ready to go than a lot of writers, which is pretty fantastic.  The biggest thing slowing me down right now, in terms of getting my work out there, is coming up with the funds for each individual book.

That and, of course, the fact that I have other obligations.  You know, real life and all.  But really, on the whole, that’s a pretty awesome problem to have.