Gratitude

I consider the time from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day to be a special time for gratitude, although not the only time, for sure. Many people recommend gratitude as a daily practice and I concur. Reciting, recording, or just noticing our reasons for gratitude shifts one’s mood and lightens one’s state of mind. I point to this late autumn-wintry season as something special because we tend to be very focused on it, our awareness is heightened. It provides a wonderful opportunity to focus on gratitude.

Another reason for the focus this year is the strain the pandemic is placing on everyone. If we shift from an emotion of loneliness or distress into gratitude it will lift the heart, give us fresh focus and help us move on.

My gratitude painting this year is Grateful Remembrance. The roughly indicated faces are people who have been important in my life and whose footsteps are fading from the earth. The viewer will supply names for those images, as I have. The significant people continue to live vividly in my memory and in my heart, even as the reflection of flowers in this painting is bright and lively while the flowers that were are only suggested by outlines.
I hope this sentiment resonates with you, too.