Wow what an amazing two weeks as I settle into the new unit required for my uni studies and unwrap the word “gratitude”. On a personal level I am now beginning to see that I have experienced the last ten years or so of my life in fast forward with out stopping to reflect or express gratitude to pretty much 80% of it. Always having to have a goal, accomplish it and move on to the next goal. Success for me meant getting from one tier to the next in order to live an easier life yet after reading some literature on gratitude I realise that I never stop and experience the moment in order to be grateful for it.
The word grateful now takes on many new meanings for me. An example of this was the simple pleasure of walking my dogs. As I rounded the corner on our stretch for home I began thinking of what the day had brought to me. What was I grateful for? I stopped in that moment, bent down, patted my furry companions and stopped to look at my environment. Suburbia was there in all her glory; cars parked on the street, some children riding their bikes and music playing in someone’s back yard. As I focused on the objects I saw in front of me I found myself looking at a Frangipani tree.
In the past I would have simply walked under it but today I chose to consciously look at the flowers and the natural beauty of the tree. I honestly believe I must have stood there for 2-3 minutes when suddenly my eyes focused on an image of two flowers different in colour to the rest of them. When I noticed the two flowers I took a photo of it….why?
Because today the beauty of the flowers, the opportunity of walking the dogs, allowing my brain to stop for a moment and just be fully present in the experience is one that I have now come to experience as a moment of gratitude. I am grateful for the opportunity to walk my streets of suburbia, listening to its hum of a day ending and children enjoying each others friendships. I am most grateful for the opportunity to experience someone else’s joy for nature in growing the frangipani tree and providing opportunity for others to smell the flowers and appreciate the beauty. Today I am grateful for being in “the moment”.
Discovery of Gratitude 
Life moves pretty fast doesn’t it! It’s great to be able to stop and look around once in awhile to appreciate what we got.
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Hi Tash,
I enjoyed reading this, I too am guilty of not stopping to live in the moment. Pausing on your walk was such a simple thing to do, it is amazing to read what you got out of that one small decision to stop. The Frangipanis are beautiful, reading your post has inspired me to remember to pause.
Thanks
Jess
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Thank you Jess, the Frangipani tree has become my “reflective” stop spot on my walks.
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Hi Tash, feel good about having goals! I get a lot of friendly jibes at work and home because I am extremely goal oriented and outcomes focused. Until recently I thought this characteristic was a deficit but in a recent Gretchen Rubin podcast https://gretchenrubin.com/podcasts/ she talked about conformity and the burden of expectations of others, its ok to be goal focused BUT you do need to take some time to enjoy the journey, I like your riff on ‘stopping to smell the roses’, clever.
It’s not easy to get in the practice of slowing down or stopping to watch, observe and see but in a Conversations episode “the boxer puppy and the bird of prey’ his guest, Peta Clarke described nature as her church, she was describing the enormous sense of gratitude she receives from the gift of nature and being immersed and ‘present’ in nature with animals and other like-minded humans. http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/conversations/conversations-peta-clarke/9064120
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Thank you very much for your kind words, yes my family now “eye roll me” when I come up with new study goals 🙂
I like the words from Paulo Coelho. The Alchemist. “And when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it”. I am grateful I have the opportunity to discover with the help of others a deeper understanding of “gratitude” and an opportunity to give myself permission to stop in the moment and be consciously present.
Thank you for the links, I will take a moment to watch them.
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