I have a problem. I am a Bookaholic. I have never met a book I didn’t like. Every time my husband has put together another bookshelf, we both plan on it being the last one but in time another is needed.

But there are a few books I refer to so often that I keep them close at hand, on my desk. Wake Up Grateful is one of those books. The author, Kristi Nelson begins the book with these words, “Not dying changed everything.” At 33 after receiving a diagnosis of Stage IV Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Kristi said, it was in facing death she came to understand to take nothing for granted. 

Wake Up Grateful invites a transformational shift in perspective that changes daily life. “It invites us not to consider if the glass is half empty or full but awaken to the gift that there is a glass at all!” I love that perspective! How often are we grateful just for the glass or the cool clean water readily available to us?

Gratitude can be transactional. We may be grateful when we “get” something we want. But what is our response if things don’t go our way? Gratitude can be conditional. Certainly, our faith and the life of Jesus reveal to us life will have challenges and painful times. Gratitude is a feeling and a reaction to things outside of us. It’s fleeting and highly conditional. “It loves a string of green lights and a prime parking spot with money on the meter.”

Choosing to live a grateful life is more profound. It conditions us to “appreciate the value of the yellow and red lights in life.” This book asks the question, “What does it mean to truly live every day?”

One of the many simple yet significant practices suggested in this book is the change of perspective to reframe our language and thought from what we “have to” do in life, to what we “get to do.” For example, learning not to say or think, “I have to clean the garage” to “I get to clean the garage” that is… becoming more mindful that we have a garage to keep the snow and ice off our car. Oh, and yes, we have a car! And a functioning body and eyes to drive the car! And paved roads to drive on! Can you see the shift of perspective? That is what it means to live a grateful life.

I may go to therapy about the book problem sometime, but for now I think I will be grateful to love reading and have a husband who keeps building bookshelves.

May this Thanksgiving be an opportunity to change our focus from pursuing more and better to the grace and gifts before us and within us. I wish you today and always a grateful heart.