Of course there are also days when the world caves in. You get a call that family members are sick. Or you get a scary, life-changing diagnosis yourself. Or you suddenly realize that your marriage or one of your children is headed for trouble. Or a dear one dies. Now when you hide yourself in your room to huddle and cry, the sobs literally rip you apart.
How can life be beautiful at times like these? But of course it is. Even on the worst days of our lives, the whole earth is going about its daily cycles of sunrises and sunsets, plants and animals giving birth, growing, and dying. The same constellations decorate the night sky that delighted you when you were a child. There is still nothing more solid and comforting than a tree against your back, or a warm breeze caressing your face, or the sight of a jewel-toned butterfly in flight. There are still the relatives and/or friends who underpin your life, who will not understand your individual sorrows and fears - because no one can, really - but who will be there to hold your hand and listen or be there to call you or to answer the phone. Even when our hearts are burned to ash, even when we feel nothing, we can look upon the life around us and thank God for all that is still with us.
We can always will ourselves to say "Thank You" to God for what is, for the beauty and abundant life around us. Even when we are angry at God. Even if God seems silent. Even as, in the midst of an argument, we always can mutter "Thank You" for graces and gifts given. Noted author, singer, dancer, and actress Maya Angelou, who had a tragic life in many ways, including sexual abuse and rape, could still say "Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good."
The real problem is that when we are in a blue funk, or in deep distress, our faith wavers. We don't want to admit to ourselves that the best antidote for sorrow and tension is a good dose of gratitude, not a lethal injection of self-pity. Of course sometimes we need ranting and raving awhile to get anger and fear out of our systems. But if we choose to stay in the Land of Self-Pity, there are no sunrises and sunsets there, no roses or lilacs to smell, no dogs or cats waiting to be petted and stroked, no hands to hold. We are stuck with: Only Ourselves. Because we've built a Super Dome that covers us, isolates us, insulates us, from head to foot and we've lost contact with the Beautiful World Out There.
Anger, stress, and grief paralyze us. And not just our emotions. They push our bodies into fetal positions, keep us on the couch and off the exercise bike, raise our blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and blood sugars, weaken our immune system. Sometimes it takes years to bring our bodies as well as our minds back to health. I'm only now beginning to exercise and lose the weight I've gained from stress eating triggered by family deaths and illnesses over the last three and a half years. I hope it's not too late and that my blood pressure and blood sugars will be lowered. Yet, during that three and a half years, even as I was too paralyzed to exercise or diet, even as I raged and asked God "Why," I still tried to practice gratitude to prepare the way for an eventual return to spiritual, emotional, and physical health.
All good gifts that we can offer others begin in a grateful heart. Gratitude is the fertilizer that we can work into the ravaged soil of our hearts so that the seedlings of cheerfulness, love, hope, and serving others will grow and bloom.
Our God is a passionately loving God. At the same time that God can be "dark" for us, unknowable, seemingly unreachable, God still remains light - the light and love that daily pour into our lives from God's hand. Lifting our gaze from our broken hearts so that we gratefully experience all that lives, breathes, and celebrates around us is the only way that we can discover faith, hope, and love waiting to resurrect us again.