#GratefulFriday

It’s #GratefulFriday

Grateful Friday: On Attention

Gratitude as a way of being present.

Gratitude, I’m learning, isn’t a reaction to what we receive.
It’s not something we summon once the moment has passed.

Gratitude begins with attention.

It lives in the choice to be awake—to notice what is moving within us, around us, and alongside us. It’s a way of being present that quietly acknowledges how gifted life already is, before anything extraordinary happens.

This morning, I noticed it while standing at the kitchen counter, hands wrapped around a warm mug, sunlight just beginning to reach the floor. Nothing remarkable was happening—and that was the point. I was simply there, breathing, aware, not rushing ahead. And for a moment, that felt like enough.

When I slow down enough to really notice, I’m struck by how much has to come together for even one breath to be possible. So many unseen collaborations—inside the body, across the natural world, through time and relationship. Just being here, alive and participating, starts to feel less ordinary and more miraculous.

And even when life holds difficulty—as it inevitably does—we are still held inside a living world. There are faces to look into. Voices to recognize. Laughter that finds us unexpectedly. Blue skies. Green fields. Cool air that wakes the senses. Seasons changing, offering their colors without asking anything in return.

Gratitude shows itself most fully as presence.
As the willingness to sit at the table of the moment—participating, witnessing, belonging—without striving or effort. We are part of one another’s worlds simply by being here, together in time.

That feels extraordinary to me.
That feels like the gift.

Gratefulness, at its heart, is seeing clearly—recognizing the quiet privilege of participation.

Thanksgiving happens when our presence meets the presence of everything else.

And maybe when gratitude feels far away, it isn’t because it’s missing—
maybe it’s because our attention has wandered.

Today, I’m gently bringing mine back.
Happy Grateful Friday.

—Lindsay