I remembered one friend who asked me if I had discovered gratitude. He was someone who knew me; perhaps he knew this quality was lacking in my life before I left to walk the Via DeLa Plata.
Yes, I remember what life was like back then.
For me the Camino which means The Way, appealed to me as an idea not because I was searching for The Way. I just wanted to be A-way; Away from the familiar, Away from the familiar wins and disappointments, the familiar stresses, the boring bits (so many), the busy-ness that filled my life.
But no I didn’t find a deep sense of Gratitude on the Via De La Plata.
It did change me however in ways that I didn’t realise, but it did in the years that unfolded after that…
A few years ago I was with a client and spent time with their People and Culture team.
I was intrigued that they had a Gratitude Jar in the middle of the shared table. Atleast once a week they would write something as a team on a note and put it in the jar. They swore by it. I bought a jar at Kmart on the way home, but it sat in my office unused… Until after I returned from Spain.
My wife and I use it now all the time. We also have a calendar in our bathroom that prompts us to write things we are grateful for every month.
Gratitude has become my resilience, my buffer, a natural shock-absorber for life. A bit like a sense of humour (yes, I am getting better with cultivating that too)
Like many qualities it needs to be worked at, like going to the gym.
2020 has been a tough year and, along with my garden, gratitude is something I have been nurturing.
This last month I have been looking for great Ted talks on this subject. I would like to share four wonderful short movies to awaken Gratitude in you (or to remind you of the things to be thankful for).
This works best if you watch all of them (preferrably in order)
1. Lessons of how gratitude changes our life from Neuroscience
2. The 365 Thankful project.
3. The story of David OMahoney and the Gratitude Journal after a traumatic event.
4. Louis Schwartz; time lapse photography and the words of Br David Stendl-Rast. If you don’t have time to watch all of these then this is the one I recommend you DO watch.