Is Gratitude Relative?

Other Participants HERE

A month ago, I asked a group of writers to ponder the questions: How happy do they feel on a daily basis and How often do they consciously think about it? 
Then, I invited them to join me in watching a video that explored the idea of gratitude. I asked them  They were instructed to watch the video once every day and note the effects, if any, it had on them over the course of a month's time. Between March 3 - 5, they were to share their findings with us.
Feel free to visit the other participants and see what they discovered about gratitude in their lives.

1.	Literary Rambles	2.	Sharing Thanks
3.	Alex J. Cavanaugh	4.	Leigh Talbert Moore
5.	Constantine	6.	Catherine Stine's Idea City
7.	Jenni Enzor	8.	Fanny Barnes Thornton
9.	Parents for Character	10.	Miranda Hardy
11.	Jemi Fraser	12.	Julie Musil
13.	Middle Grade Mafioso	14.	Jamie Burch
15.	Mama Diaries	16.	Chandara Writes
17.	My Road To Happiness	18.	Swords and Stilettos
19.	Margo Berendsen

The video--found HERE--asks us the ponder whether or not there are steps we can take to learn to be in a state of constant happiness - gratitude. But that begs us to answer the question of what happiness really is.

• When am I most happy/grateful?
• Why am I most happy/grateful?
• Do I find slivers of gratitude and happiness during trials? 
• How do I see negatives in my life?

By formal definition from Dictionary.com, gratitude means the feeling of being grateful. Well, that's specific. From watching the video along with my experiences over this past month, I'm going to try and give gratitude a more specific definition.  The essence of being grateful, thankful, or happy is all about attitude. It's about how I perceive the world around me and how I interact and react to events, instances, words, and happenings that are beyond my control. In other words, gratitude is a choice. It doesn't hang on what's happening to me or the world around me. 

Bad things happen to good people. We all know that. Nature keeps balance in ways we may not understand, like the death of a loved one or another lose that couldn't have come at a worse time. Choosing to be grateful despite negatives in our lives gives us power: power to forge ahead and power to be an inspiration to someone else. 

Just this past week I attended the funeral of a friend's twenty-two-year-old son. Talk about the realm of negativity - a parent losing a child. Who would blame them for being anything but bitter? 

But they weren't. Several family members stood to speak at the end of the service. Not one of them dwelled on the obvious fact that this young man's life was tragically cut short. Instead, each focused on what he had brought to their lives and to the world. They rejoiced in who his was and still is. They CHOSE to be grateful for the time they had with him instead of clinging to the new hole in their world now that he's gone.

Let me share a quote with you that I read over morning.

You attract what you are, not what you want.                                                                                          So if you want it, reflect it.

Brilliant, is it not? Meditating on what that statement truly means has made a huge difference in my life. It's washed away all my distractions--stripping away the layers of onion peel so I can see what's important. And what are my distractions? For the most part they are negatives in my life I perceive as obstacles.

But those obstacles can be easily washed away if I stop focusing on them. Focusing on them only gives them power. 

Let me ask you this: Wouldn't that power be put to better use on a positive in my life? (You bet.) In your life? 

My first Act of Random Gratitudeness is to offer my participants and all of you this little badge I created as a gift. ((Hugs)) I've included two sizes for your convenience. Copy it. Paste it on your site, your desktop, or wherever. Share it on social media or keep it private. It's my gift to you. I hope it helps remind you on a daily basis of just how cool you really are.

SPLAT: Don't forget to ENTER the KINDLE FIRE giveaway I'm a part of, where TWO Kindle Fires are up for grabs.