Updated December 29, 2009
 www.lovecounts.net

Each of us has the power within us to lift ourselves above the story of our lives. The two essential ingredients to being able to do so is that we must remember that it is only a story and that we do have the power. The power is there for us to draw on and it is absolute. But, like everything else in life, it takes a combination of desire, choice and then effort to take the steps necessary to walk free of darkness and step into the light.

The greatest attitude of all is gratitude. If we can find the strength and understanding within ourselves to be truly grateful for the 'bad' as well as the 'good' things - both relative terms - then we have one of the keys to walking with the gods.

The above are paraphrases from Annalee Skarin’s books. The following is my own personal note about gratitude.

Even though I read those lines about gratitude many years ago, I just didn’t get it for the longest time. Some sorrow or heartache or financial problem would come my way and I would think, “How am I supposed to be thankful for this?”  At those times I would stop focusing on the current set of woes and undertake a mental recitation of what I could be thankful for and found that, while the circumstances didn’t change, my attitude did.

Now I understand that we can honestly be grateful for the woes in our life simply because it is the woes of life, along with the joys, that mould us into the person we are.  Each dark circumstance in our life asks the question, “What are you going to do?”  It is our own personal answer to that question that determines the future quality of our life.  We can choose to be defeated, to lie down and die, or we can make the choice to stand tall and exercise an attitude of gratitude.