Is gratitude possible in the time of a pandemic

 Gratitude in the times of a pandemic

Why is gratitude important in the pandemic? Gratitude is not just about finding things to be thankful for. Gratitude is about acknowledging all that there is and acknowledging the chances of all that there can be. Gratitude is knowing that everything you have made for yourself has come at a cost and at a certain level of work. Gratitude is knowing that you have cultivated relationships through which you have been able to secure for yourself some joy and some pleasure in both giving and receiving. Gratitude is necessary. You may turn around and say it's not. Many people live ungrateful lives. To that I'd say, I have a sweet tooth and I'd like a sweet taste of my life as long as I live. My gratitude stems from the fact that, I work hard and my environment is such that my hard work pays. My environment works in my favor. That's not nothing. You can then tell me that the world is suffering and I would agree. You can ask me if this is the time to be grateful for anything. I'd say yes. It is. Gratitude is acknowledging all that's going right even if it's not everything. You'd say this is very selfish. I'd say no. I need to be grateful to be motivated enough to deal with another day. I need to know that I am surviving well to survive as well as yesterday if not better. I need to know I have the ability in the first place, before I can use that ability to help people in the pandemic. When we lose our gratitude, we feel like the world is unresponsive to us. It's uncaring. It's not giving us anything. We tend to recede from the world. Doing so does not do the society any good. Gratitude is needed to know that our work matters to our progress, our self care adds to our strength and that our ideas matter to the world even if the world is going through a catastrophy. When we know this we will be ever so ready to reach out, to move and to work for us and the world. 

The first question everyone asks when they hear this particular topic is, would gratitude even be possible in Times like this. But I am a creature that feeds on gratitude. Aren't we all? 

We divide our lives into themes. Every theme is heading in a certain direction. The theme of education is heading or striving to head towards success. Theme of productivity and success is heading towards or striving to head towards money. We look for movement, we look for direction in everything that we do. Look for these two things more so in the most dominant themes of our lives. But can our lives be reduced to one or two themes? No. It is one or two themes in everyone's life one invests the most value in. If these themes get affected by the pandemic we lose our ability to be grateful altogether. Hence, we must look at our life holistically. We should be able to look at multiple themes and appreciate progress in every domain however little. Gratitude only comes with being grounded in our reality. Our reality is multi faceted and hence must be evaluated accordingly. 

Let us take it for granted that the pace of life is going to be slow in the pandemic. Let us take for granted that education jobs and productivity will take a hit. Let's invest more value in our personal self growth. Let's turn to wellness, peace and mindfulness. Let's make progress where we can. 

Gratitude is possible only when we look at every domain of our life. When we give value to all those basic things we consider mundane and unimportant we can find gratitude. We are seven months into the pandemic and we have acquired some skill, some self care routines and some knowledge of the world. Although everyday has been a mix of the great and the gloomy we will have to learn how to preserve our praises for the great and let the gloomy slip away. Life has a very unique way of juxtaposing the great with the gloomy. It's on us to acknowledge what's working and make sure it keeps working for us. 

Progress is seen as a directional concept. We hate regression, we hate to admit that we fail sometimes. Progress is messy. Progress trembles, progress wails, progress suffers, progress doubts, progress hurts. Progress depends on the intent. As long as you have the intent to make it all work you are bound to do well. You may tremble but you will not collapse. So if you have been able to preserve your intent to move ahead, to explore yourself, to take care of yourself, you can allow yourself to be grateful. Gratitude is possible.