Years ago I tried keeping a gratitude journal. Oprah told me to, and I hoped it would help me through a particularly rough year. I’m a good list maker so I started writing out these long lists of things I thought I should feel grateful for, but I couldn’t feel the love.
I wrote my journal and then stopped, and then I tried again, but it started to seem pushy to keep telling myself all the things I should feel grateful for when I didn’t.
Not one to give up on Oprah’s directives so easily, I eventually tried a different approach.
One day I picked up an orange and really paid attention to it.
I held the orange in my hand and felt the roundness and the weight of it. I noticed its bright orange color and the way it shifted to yellow in some places. I lifted it close to my face and saw the subtle texture of its skin.
I peeled the orange and noted that it was formed into sections, each covered with a web of white veins.
I pulled out one of the sections and removed its translucent skin. It was filled with tiny juice pouches, and there were so many of them.
How did they even get in there?
I picked out one of the pouches and held it up to the light. So shiny . . .
How would you even make something like this?!
I considered that oranges are everywhere . . .
How loved must I be to have all of this provided for me?
And there it was, all the gratitude.
Later I discovered that one orange has over 170 phytonutrients (plant nutrients), that we know of. Scientists at the time (~2010) were still studying them and finding more. That’s in addition to the fiber, vitamins, and minerals that are commonly known.
What a gift.
I have an easier time making gratitude lists now, but I still like to use this practice when I want to boost my mood, and feel appropriately grateful for life. It’s a good one to do with flowers, too.
To sum this up, oranges are amazing (!) and sometimes you have to find your own way to gratitude.
Choose Your Focus