Saturday, January 10, 2009

Amiable Advice

I am too blessed to be stressed.

Anonymous
*********************
Hail, fascinating folks.

"Count your blessings." How often have you heard that advice from somebody? Every time I hear it, it gives me a twinge of guilt that I'm not being grateful enough for what I have. Well, sorry, but I can give you a whole long list of things that aren't right about my life. I can generally count more of those than I can my blessings. Moreover, if I started to count my blessings I'm bound to leave one out. And blanket gratitude such as "I'm thankful to be alive" or "I'm glad I'm an American" won't go very far unless you know why you are.

On the stage you can't play the role if your action is to be grateful. One of the basic rules of acting is "Be Specific." The actor has to know precisely why the character is grateful and exactly what the character is grateful for. Being specific is a way of identifying the single realities that go to make up the character's life and also our own lives.

While reading through the journals I follow on Thursday afternoon I came across a great one by Maria called Are You Positive?. Check it out.
http://areyoupositive.blogspot.com/
In it she suggests making a short list, 5 items, of things one is specially grateful for on a single day. When I read that I began to apply it right away. It's like breaking down a very difficult job into small individual tasks, the climbing of a flight of stairs one step at a time.

Today: I am grateful:

1 that my space heater works
2 for my friend Karen down the street
3 for the Wagner opera that filled my afternoon
4 that Ken and Beth are back from Las Vegas
5 for Maria's journal


May you have a cheerful day.

DB - Vagabond Journeys

7 comments:

Ken Riches said...

I like the suggestion to be specific on things that you are thankful for.

Glad to be back home, and am finally caught up to all the Spotters out there.

Hope your Saturday is great.

betty said...

I love your list of gratefuls and the attitude behind it :)

betty

Beth said...

That's a great philosophy, and I'm grateful to be on your list! :)

Leigh/BlueDragonfly said...

This is a wonderful practice of awareness of the good in your life. I've done it off and on for several years, I'll have to start doing it again.

:) Leigh

Dannelle said...

again yu have hit the nail on the head without bashing any fingers! I will begin this practice poste haste. Danelle

Valerie said...

I checked the blog out. How positive! I am grateful you are my friend, DB =). Have a good weekend. Love, Val xox

Linda's World said...

You are so right. We have to much to be grateful for. First of all...all of us here in Bloggerville have electricity & a computer~those living on the streets have neither. And we have shelter and presumably a warm bed to sleep in~again those on the streets have neither. We are truly blessed. Linda in Washington where it's drying out.