(From my
MitchInspires.com blog.)
Yesterday evening around 5:45 PM, we heard a loud boom, and the house
shook as though something large had hit it. As many of you will have
heard, it was actually a huge gas-line explosion just off the downtown
square here in Canton, which is just over a half mile from where we
live. One Ameren worker, who’d been working on the gas-line at the
time, was killed, and several other people injured, including Dr. Tom
Eiselt, a colleague from my Rotary Club here in Canton.
Tragedies such as these remind us of what’s truly important.
Coincidentally, as I’d been preparing for my monthly television segment
on WEEK-TV in Peoria, I’d been thinking that having just come through
this contentious election season, and since Thanksgiving is only a week
away, how really important it is for us to shift our focus away from
everything we think is
wrong in our lives, and instead put our attention on everything that is
right. And that’s what Thanksgiving is about—celebrating our blessings of abundance.
While it’s certainly much more challenging during times of crisis and
loss, this shift in focus—from dissatisfaction to gratitude—is
nonetheless really important, because as creative human beings, whatever
we focus on intently, we tend to increase and replicate. Even within
the context of last night’s disaster, we can be grateful that there
weren’t more injuries or loss of life, as there so easily could have
been.
Choosing gratitude allows us to weather the storm of adversity with
more grace and acceptance. Perhaps just as importantly, with an
attitude of gratitude our subconscious mind goes to work to create more
of the same, and our experience of abundance is replicated.
And of course we’re not just talking about material abundance…
Abundance can take many different forms. In our country, we have an
abundance of freedoms and opportunities that many people don’t have. We
can also appreciate the abundance of relationships, our friends and
families, our health, our safety and security, and even our ability to
help others in situations of need. And whatever we focus on tends to
expand.
In fact, when we join together in this experience of shared
appreciation and gratitude, our imagination becomes enflamed with
possibility, and truly magical things can often take place. We
experience our blessings expanding until our cups runneth over. We find
ourselves acting on this vision of abundance, potently charged
emotionally by the feelings of gratitude, and we move unerringly towards
its further manifestation.
My prayers go out to all those who suffered loss in this crisis, and I
also want express my deep and abiding gratitude to all my friends,
family, clients, and my many other connections for enriching my life in
so many ways. May you all have a safe and blessed Thanksgiving.
