Gratitude

When I sat back to think about my celebratory New Year’s Eve options this year, many ideas popped into my head. I could, of course, go celebrate it with my family in Georgia (USA) like I’ve done so many times by eating pig’s feet to bring luck, collard greens to bring dollars and black-eyed peas to bring coins. Or I could stay in Germany and celebrate with friends over Bleigießen (German fortune telling via molten lead) and ‘Dinner for One’ (an English comedy sketch that has become a New Year’s Eve ritual in Germany).   There are so many beautiful cities across the world with wonderful traditions, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that actually the best place for me to usher in the New Year is simply from a place of gratitude.

If you think about it, we are all a complete success. We are actually one of the greatest, most unbelievable, most victorious creations that has ever lived. It is only a failure of our imagination and recognition that prevents us from pausing sometimes to revel at how incredibly, categorically, ridiculously and astronomically lucky and great we all are.

How cool is it that the Divine Force that created oceans, planets and galaxies, looked at you and thought the world needs one of you too? We were born into what I consider an ‘auspicious age’, in that we are living in a time of incredible mobility, astrophysics, inconceivable medical advancement, and LBGT rights, just to name a few. Five hundred years ago we were throwing our trash out the window and then wading through its decay on the streets. Five hundred years from now, the planet will be a technological quandary. But right here, right now, we are given the opportunity to experience life in a way that we have never before and may never be able to again.

So I challenge us all this year to try and live more from a place of gratitude and less from a place of basing our happiness upon a socially prescribed lifestyle that keeps us constantly in need of more and in search of an obscure ‘pot of gold’. You already are that pot of gold. So expect miracles. Choose people who choose you. Don’t push, but instead follow that all-knowing magnetic pull. Wait without anxiety. Forget the mistake but remember the lesson. Be the story that you always wanted to tell. If you get knocked down, add more lipstick and attack. Know the universe has your back. Don’t forget to fall in love with yourself. And most importantly, have a damn fun time in the process. That breath you just took was a miracle…

You’re already an illustrious triumph.

So cheers to you and Have a Wonderful New Years!