{"id":262,"date":"2013-08-27T22:32:00","date_gmt":"2013-08-27T22:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.healingicons.org\/gratitude-in-difficult-times\/"},"modified":"2015-03-04T01:11:25","modified_gmt":"2015-03-04T01:11:25","slug":"gratitude-in-difficult-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.healingicons.org\/gratitude-in-difficult-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Gratitude in Difficult Times"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>I recently found this passage about gratitude among\u00a0Dana Jennings<\/a>\u2019s\u00a0reflections in the New York Times<\/em> on his cancer journey:<\/p>\n When you have cancer, when you\u2019re being cut open and radiated and who knows what else, it can take a great effort to be thankful for the gift of the one life that we have been blessed with. Believe me, I know.<\/p>\n And sometimes, in the amnesia of sickness, we forget to be grateful. But if we let our cancers consume our spirits in addition to our bodies, then we risk forgetting who we truly are, of contracting a kind of Alzheimer\u2019s of the soul.<\/p>\n Gratitude is an antidote to the dark voice of illness that whispers to us, that insists that all we have become is our disease. Living in the shadow of cancer has granted me a kind of high-definition gratitude. I\u2019ve found that when you\u2019re grateful, the world turns from funereal gray to incandescent Technicolor.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Whatever today has brought you, consider\u00a0drawing a mandala of gratitude<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0Start with being thankful for your hands and the ability make marks. Remember, drawing is simply mark-making<\/a>! Use color freely and expressively, seeing where it leads you.<\/p>\n\n