When I sat down to write this, I had an entirely different concept in mind. But, in my process of settling into my couch and enjoying my afternoon after work, I was reflecting on the feeling of gratitude. So let’s take this in a different direction.  I want to be clear, I am talking about the lived sensations of gratitude, how it arrives physiologically and is interpreted as emotion. I am not talking about the quick thought or general understanding of what things of value are. This is the feeling, this is gratitude in action.

 I think the arrival of the sensations of gratitude is always a welcome one, but I would be lying if I said I felt it as often as I wanted it to. I think it is easy to forget to live in gratitude, even if we know in our minds that we are grateful. I guess I’m talking about this sort of forgetting to appreciate, where we start to take things for granted. This is where we forget how valuable much of life is in this honest and visceral way. 

For this conversation to be effective, I’ll have to be real with you and admit that I am guilty of this more than I am proud to admit. But life is just compelling enough to keep me interested in learning about it better. Still, it often becomes boring, dull, and mundane. Big changes over time become saturated with similar memories, and their lived sense of significance seems to shrink. Things become familiar. The novelty has worn off.

I’ve talked about hedonistic adaptation on here before, this is the same thing. This is the idea that we become accustomed to our lives. We literally go back to baseline despite obtaining accomplishments, changes, and life improvements. The honeymoon phase ends, and we forget. It’s common enough if we forget gratitude. 

[Note: I just returned to writing after petting my dog, who arrived next to me a few minutes ago. And because his life is short and so are my opportunities for this moment to be here, I decided to be there. What is this decision? I believe it is remembering gratitude. Remembering that this moment is something to be admired, enjoyed, and attended. It was a good choice. Let’s continue.]

In all my reflections, I stumbled on this remembering. This cycle of awareness that I want to practice as regularly as my memory allows me. But still, I’ll forget. Then, I’ll remember. I think it gets easier, but presence can be slippery, and presence is necessary for the embodiment of gratitude. 

Where is this going? Well, I’m not sure I’m just enjoying the process of writing and really sitting in this moment. It’s a moment worth attending, all of it. 

This presence is as necessary for living in gratitude as gratitude is in obtaining the necessary presence to live. This is a process of awarding value to the here and now. We say this experience is worth something, we decide this deserves to be seen. 

There is not much to say because gratitude is short and sweet and must be cultivated. We have to arrive at gratitude, and we have to agree to its arrival. We have to make the choice. It is an active thing. It is a practice, a ritual, a ceremony. It is tending to awareness. It is planting silver linings and watching them grow.

It is right here. It is right now.