Thursday, November 22, 2007

A Day Of Gratitude

I know that rather than being on your computer, you are probably having a wonderful Thanksgiving Day with your family and friends. As I wrote that, a voice popped up and said, "if they are Americans." I still tend to forget how far out there my reach is with this blog thanks to the world-wide web.

Whether you are American or not, you can still decide to have a day of gratitude on whatever day you choose to read this article. Being in gratitude is a great way to go though a day. Experience the joy of a grateful attitude.

Thank you to all who read and/or subscribe to my blog. Thank you for those of you who have reached out to me with the comments that you have left at the end of my articles. Your words are important. Your comments tell me that I am accomplishing my goals of spreading knowledge, of touching others with my words and stories, of opening eyes and ears to be more aware of the abuse that may be happening around you, and of opening hearts to any abuse survivors that you may know or meet. I thank you for letting me know, through your comments, that my choice to share some of my more painful childhood experiences is of benefit to other survivors. For the most part, I do not live in that pain today. I choose to revisit those painful times to benefit others who think they are alone and have no way out of the pain. My goal for this blog is to offer hope and strength to all who read my words. Your pain may be from a different experience than mine. We can learn compassion for ourselves by offering it to others. We are truly one.

Someone told me recently (I have actually been told this several times lately, so I know it is really important.) that when one of us changes, we all change. So, if you want to change the world, do as Gandhi says "Be the change you wish to see in the world."

My blog presents a variety of topics, as my spiritual growth takes me down many roads.


Part of that path has been about incest. I am thankful for the incest and the abusers who have been in my life. They have been some of my greatest teachers. In addressing the incest, I have found out who I am and what I am not. I am not a victim of incest or of anything else. I am a strong, caring, courageous woman. I thank my parents for the parts that they played in my life.


A number of my articles were written in gratitude to The Most Influencial Person (people) in my life. I do believe in saying Thank You when someone has done you a service. I have even been known to sarcastically say Thank You to someone who did me a service that I didn't appreciate. Have you ever done that?


I have also written about other subjects that I believe in, such as the Law of Attraction and the use of affirmations. I know that affirmations work. The use of affirmations helped me to learn to love myself and helped me build my self-esteem from that of a frightened child in a woman's body to the healthy, compassionate woman that I am today. I know my self-worth today. I am grateful to the people and books that introduced me to affirmations, The Secret, and The Law of Attraction.


I am grateful for the opportunities to travel to India three times over the past ten years. I am amazed at the difference in where I am on my spiritual path now compared to that first trip back in 1998. Seeing how different and how alike people are around the world helps me to remember that we are all one.

I am thankful for the success of my blog. A year ago, I would not have imagined having all of the new friends that I now have because of my blog. Your friendship is much appreciated even though we have never met. You have all become a part of my spiritual growth.

Here are some links to some great articles on gratitude written by some of those new friends of mine.

Nneka at Balanced Life Center started a month of weekly Season Of Gratitude posts found at http://www.balancedlifecenter.com/category/gratitude/


Edward Mills at Evolving Times found at http://www.evolvingtimes.com/2007/11/gratitude-jumping-spider.htm


Albert Foong at UrbanMonk.Net found at http://www.urbanmonk.net/56/little-secrets-of-the-power-of-expressing-gratitude-even-for-the-bad/


Marj aka Thriver at Survivors Can Thrive! found at http://survivorscanthrive.blogspot.com/search/label/gratitude


Stephen Hobson at Adversity University Blog found at http://www.adversityuniversityblog.com/2007/04/20/gratitude-reminders/
I just discovered Stephen's blog in the past few weeks.
















9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Patricia:

Thank you for your mention of my blog in today's gratitude post. I'm thankful you liked that article. It's a weekly gratitude theme that I started about 4 weeks ago to keep me in the "attitude of gratitude."

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Patricia Singleton said...

Stephen, you are welcome. I will read more of your blog articles as time permits after the holidays. Holding on to an "attitude of gratitude" has certainly made a difference in my life. An attitude of gratitude can make me smile on a gray winter day. I like your attitude.

Anonymous said...

Dear Patricia,

It's really quite amazing to me
when I stop and think of my net
friends-blogging buddies....
I say to myself... WOW, feels like
I've known them all my life.
And then I realize, as with you,
it's ONLY been a matter of months.
(maybe months in THIS lifetime-wink)

Thank your for your heartfelt words.
You always share that way.

Speaking of sharing, I'd like
to share the link to this
Thanksgiving message...

http://tinyurl.com/2tuwau

Blessings to you and yours,
and all your readers.

Love~
Deb

Patricia Singleton said...

Deb, you are definitely one of those new friends that I have met over the past few months. I have only been online since June 1. Should a short time and it seems meant longer than than. Thanks for the link. Wonderful story about Thanksgiving.

Paritosh Uttam said...

Happy Thanksgiving, Patricia!

Some of your lines are really Gandhian in nature, like, thanking someone for doing something you didn't like. Easy to say but tough to follow.

warm wishes,
Paritosh.

Patricia Singleton said...

Paritosh, believe when I say that I didn't always feel thankful for the abuse. What I feel thankful for is the results of who I became by surviving and growing through the abuse. My strengths and courage have come about because of working through my abuse issues. I am who I am today because of the challenge of finding good in my life. I have always believed that what you do with life's challenges is what is important. You can whine and let them defeat you or you can find ways to become a better person and help others do that same. If that sounds like Gandhi,good. He had great ideas and was a great person to follow as a role model.

Patricia Singleton said...

This article was included in Nneka of Balanced Life Center's Season of Gratitude. You will find the other articles at the link provided below entitled Happy Belated Thanksgiving. Please check out all of the other articles. I just finished reading some really wonderful articles about gratitude. Today, my life was enriched by reading those articles.

Marj aka Thriver said...

How lovely! What a nice thing to return to after my vacation. Thanks for the link...and for the other links I can read and enjoy.

Patricia Singleton said...

Marj, you are welcome. I know you enjoyed your much deserved vacation with your family.