The Thankful Game

When I was in college, Elena and I used to play a game. It's called the Thankful Game.

Here's how it works: First you have to pick the right time to play. Preferably on a day when you are feeling really upset, angry, frustrated or like everything is just not going your way. This kind of day is the ideal time to play the Thankful Game.

You start with something really obvious. Something like "I am thankful that I live in an apartment". Then you one-up it.

"I am thankful that our apartment doesn't have a broken sewer line in it."

Now you are just warming up.

"I am thankful it isn't my job to clean up houses after the sewer has broken."

Do you see where I'm going with this? Pretty soon you have a scenario that is so hideously unappealing that you have no choice but to be thankful for the very situation that you used to think was unbearable.

A simple change in perspective changes everything. Even though nothing has really shifted.

These past few weeks I have repeatedly caught myself with a pretty sorry perspective on life. But, tonight I am grateful for the opportunity that I have to flip that view anytime I can humble myself enough to acknowledge that I might be seeing things all wrong.

Because there are so many things to cherish and so many reasons to have a thankful heart. Anytime I have conscientiously tried to live in the moment, I have uncovered the underlying joy that pulses beneath us all the time. If only we are ready to see it.

Glimpses of the joy that is pure and eternal.