Potential To Wake You Up!

"Have a sense of gratitude to everything,

even difficult emotions,

because of their potential 

to wake you up.

Pema Chodron

Gratitude can be a fleeting thought or a lengthy response to all of the blessings in our life.  We are grateful for our health and families; friends and neighbors; mentors and professionals; and perhaps for our materialistic accumulations.  Rarely, are we grateful for difficult challenges or the emotional triggers accompanying them.

When we find ourselves charged by a situation, and take the time to trace our feelings to their origin, we will discover an issue waiting to be healed.  This is especially true when we are reacting to an issue not having any direct relationship to our life.

Around others, we may hear a person going off on a tangent.  On and on he goes, beating the subject to death, while we begin to wonder what it is that directly pertains to him.  The person may admit the incident being discussed has nothing to do with them personally, but he just feels like it is wrong.  If we would pursue where his feelings were coming from, what associations or memories he had, we would come across the trigger trying to wake him up!

It is when we are aware and living in the moment that these discoveries can be revealed.  Each time we experience the presence of deep emotions, explore their origin, and release them, we grow closer to our  authenticity. And for that, indeed, we can be deeply grateful!