Keep yourself clean and bright.  For you are the window through which you see the world.   George Bernard Shaw

Gratitude.  Few muscles  are simpler, or more profound.

Years ago (lots of them!) my grandma used to tell me to “count my blessings.”  As a little kid, I always thought this had something vaguely to do with math.

 As I grow though, on the path of experiencing more of the fullness of life, I really get her wisdom.  Counting our blessings helps us stay “clean and bright.”  Now I keep a gratitude journal by my bed.  Slowing down, settling under my down comforter, my computer quieted for the duration, I take up pen and paper and ‘count my blessings.’

If I could give every client just one regular practice to keep themselves clean and bright, it would be this:

•  Take a few minutes at the close of each day.

•  Wrap your mind and heart around what you are most grateful for.     

This list may be gifts of the day – an act of courage by a friend, the willingness of another to lead, your own ability to follow.  It may also be what endures – the foundations of what matter most.  Your most precious relationships.  The sense of peace deep inside when you know all is right with the world. 

It may be the simple pleasure of a cat’s warm purr, or the grandeur of Orion, standing tall in the midwinter sky.  Or the stir of anticipation deep within, like the earliest scent of spring.  

 What are you most grateful for?

Gratitude is a muscle.   Like every other muscle, the more often we use it, the stronger it gets. Soon, it becomes a habit; gratitude sweeps in like the incoming tide.

 Take a few minutes every day to count your blessings.

 It’s the best way I know to “keep yourself clean and bright!”