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Gratitude Takes Practice
Publishers Blog

Kerry McCoyVolume 8 Issue 1 Spring-Summer 2023
By Kerry McCoy

Young people often ask me, “What was your favorite age?” My answer is always the same, “Now.” As I grow older, I enjoy the wisdom that comes from experience, the peace that comes from a life well lived, and the gratitude that comes from practice. In that wisdom is forgiveness. In that peace is acceptance. And, in that gratitude is the present.

With the road behind me longer than the road in front of me, I am more acutely aware that all I have is “Now”.

I try to wake grateful for the day, the night, the quiet, the birds, my homeland, my friends, my family, my parents (rest in peace), my work, my health, the problems to solve, the solutions found. I am even grateful for the ungrateful who show me how not to be.

In practicing gratitude, I have surmised there is a reason prayers and meditations, more than not, start with listing your blessings. By the time you have finished that mental exercise, it is impossible for your mood not to have improved for the better. Afterwards with your mind now opened, you’ll be more ready to receive the goodness you seek.

Right now, I’m grateful to write and share my thoughts. Not that I felt bad before, but suddenly, I feel even better.

I will leave you with this sobering thought. A message I read on a sign by a co-worker’s desk. Whenever I happen by and see it, it kind of makes me shiver:

It says, “If you only had tomorrow what you were grateful for today, what would you have?”

Thanks for reading,

Kerry McCoy Brave mini flag

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