Like anyone, I love days of “great-fullness” and all the moments which hover
vividly at the brim. And I dearly love it when I feel like a “glass-half-full”
kind of person; optimistic, celebratory, upbeat. But as I have grown to humbly
understand, feelings of fullness are not consistent, predictable, or assured.
I can always turn on the faucet, but as we all know, evaporation happens.
It seems to me that underneath all the inevitable risings and fallings, feeling
deeply content or joyful is not actually about how full the glass is or seems…
it is about being grateful for having a glass at all.
Being grateful for simply having a glass is key because without it, half of anything
wouldn’t matter. Without it, life would either be a puddle or thin air.
The glass is a container for our experiences – all experience – and some people
seem to know that noticing and being grateful for this container trumps
everything, and can turn any and all contents in our favor.
What I know is that when the glass of life itself feels like enough to me, the
dry times and overflowing times can come and go and my happiness remains
more steady and unconditional; my wellbeing seeming to spring from a deeper
source. In this state, I am able to access that balance point of equanimity
and equilibrium, returning solidly to the mid-way point, the mark of both
half-full and half-empty, with less concern. I feel “held” by a container, full
even when the glass is empty.
Many of us spend our lives seeking, accumulating and counting good times
and reasons for gratitude as one way to shift the equation from lack to sufficiency;
from half-empty to half-full. But gratitude for individual moments
and things that can come and go – that DO come and go – can keep us in a
relentless pursuit of “more.” And, on some level, we know that “more” is
just as subject to evaporation as less.
Perhaps this is why we long, and need, to listen to the voices of people like
Jimmy Carter, and innumerable others who stare into the face of illness and
the end of life with grace, grit, and gratitude. We know that they know what
matters. And most of us are longing to know, and be filled up by, what really
matters in our lives – in the midst of a million forces pulling us toward settling
for just one more drop.
Knowing that our lives are incomprehensibly precious, fragile, and fleeting
reminds us to stop in our tracks and take stock, every moment, of what matters,
how much is enough, and where wisdom would direct our attention.
Yet, facing and befriending our mortality seems to be the one thing that so
many of us most heartily avoid. What a conundrum…
Grateful living can help – offering a path and practices that put living fully at
the center of everything. Gratefulness is about being able to notice and appreciate
the gift of the glass itself, amidst the ups and downs. It is about knowing
in our molecules that life is a gift, no matter how empty we may feel.
And it is about understanding that in each and every moment that we notice
we are alive, we are succeeding in creating a life that truly hovers vividly at the
brim. Because, in the end, it is all about the glass, not what is in it.