Hello and welcome to the Gratitude Breakfast Club,
A quick morning meet-up to help you jump-start or maintain your gratitude practice.
We'll make it quick because we know you have things to do on this beautiful day.
Hello,
Beautiful ones.
I did the weirdest thing recently.
I packed up,
Cleaned,
And moved out of a house,
Only to move back in,
Gratefully,
30 days later.
It had taken me only a few days to realize that I had made a huge mistake,
And only about two weeks before I realized that the best way of rectifying my mistake was to return to my former home.
But I paid a significant price,
Financially and energetically.
I paid application fees for the rental home,
Again,
Did my own moving and paid movers,
Again,
Did my own cleaning and paid for cleaners,
Again,
And then had to unpack,
Yet again.
It was exhausting.
And it was my very own version of the folktale,
A Crowded Farmhouse.
In one version of that traditional Yiddish folktale,
A farmer with a wife and several children complains that his home is too small.
So the village wise woman tells him to take his ducks into the home.
The farmer is confused,
But does so.
The home with the farmer,
The wife,
And the children,
And the ducks is still too small.
So he goes back to the wise woman.
She tells him to take his horses into the home.
The home with the family,
And the ducks,
And the horses is still too small.
So the farmer returns to the wise woman again,
And this time he's angry.
So the wise woman tells him to take his goats into the home.
But the home with the farmer,
The wife,
The children,
The ducks,
The horses,
And the goats is still too small.
So the farmer goes back to the wise woman again.
This time the wise woman advises the farmer to return all the animals to their ponds and pens and stalls outside.
When only the farmer and his family are in the home again,
They are relieved to find that,
Magically,
The home is just the right size.
Ah,
The beauty of perspective.
We are living through a significant housing crisis in the U.
S.
Right now.
There's a shortage of homes to purchase and a shortage of homes to rent.
On top of that,
I live in a state that is infamous for having very tenant-unfriendly laws.
The combination,
As you can imagine,
Is toxic.
I was tired of the greed and tired of the ridiculous demands,
Including that I watch YouTube videos and become an amateur plumber before management would send maintenance out for an issue.
I have never paid so much for rent in my life,
And I certainly wasn't going to add working for them for free to it.
But guess what?
My home is beautiful,
Clean,
And even if after a fight,
Well-maintained.
And for 30 days I experienced living in a home that was the very opposite of that.
I thought that the home would have been cleaned before I moved in,
And I thought I could beautify the space myself with a little elbow grease and creativity.
But faced with greed that provided a beautiful home,
And greed that couldn't even do that,
I knew where I needed to be.
And this is a great example of keeping it real with your gratitude practice.
I am so thankful for my home and the peace it provides,
Even while I know the circumstances and systems around it aren't perfect.
So today I ask you,
What in your life can you acknowledge as ridiculously imperfect,
But still something you are thankful for anyway?
With love,
Appreciation,
And gratitude,
This is Karen.
