Maggie Oman Shannon - Crafting Gratitude: Creating and Celebrating Our Blessings with Hands and Heart

Copyright 2017 by Maggie Oman Shannon.

All rights reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in newspaper, magazine, radio, television, or online reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published in the United States by Viva Editions, an imprint of Start Midnight, LLC, 101 Hudson Street, Thirty-Seventh Floor, Suite 3705, Jersey City, NJ 07302.

Printed in the United States.

Cover design: Scott Idleman/Blink

Cover photograph: iStock

Text design: Frank Wiedemann

Illustrations: Jill Turney

First Edition.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Trade paper ISBN: 978-1-63228-034-3

E-book ISBN: 978-1-63228-039-8

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Gratefully dedicated to two special teachers who shaped my life:

To Lee Gaillard, who told me I was a writer when I was fifteen, giving me encouragement, aspiration, and an identity that continues to motivate me; and

To Ed Long, whose grounding in art, music, and film has enriched my life immeasurably and whose devotion to stoking the creative spirit inspires me still.

Table of Contents

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, and confusion into clarity. It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.

MELODY BEATTIE

As I express my gratitude, I become more deeply aware of it. And the greater my awareness, the greater my need to express it. What happens here is a spiraling ascent, a process of growth in ever-expanding circles around a steady center.

BROTHER DAVID STEINDL-RAST

[Appreciation] makes immortal all that is best and most beautiful.... It exalts the beauty of that which is beautiful.... It strips the veil of familiarity from the world, and lays bare the naked and sleeping beauty, which is in the spirit of its forms.

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

Foreword

WE HUMAN BEINGS ARE CONTINUOUSLY LOOKING FOR WAYS to ease or avoid the painful parts of life. We are also created to create. So many of us waited and waited for the permission or the credentials to call ourselves creative when in fact we are each born creative. Not only is our creativity meant to be a great joy to us through all the days of our life, our creativity also is a part of our thriving survival. All of us are creative in our own ways and it is my firm belief that our creativity is also our best, most personalized medicine for what ails our individual hearts. Fortunately, our creativity is also very often the best medicine for what ails the hearts of others. What is life for if not to ease each others burdens, to see the awe and wonder of life and to find our own way on our own creative paths?

For as long as I can remember, my first solution to my heartache or my boredom was to make something with my hands. When I learned the power of gratitude, my new go-to for emotional discomfort consisted of compiling a mental or handwritten list of all of the things in life for which I could be grateful. Combining these two practices is a powerful match.

I went through a very difficult decade where each day I was met with the challenge of not knowing whether or not I could continue on. My husband of 14 years sustained a traumatic brain injury and he became a completely different person. At this time, we had five young children and a business that we had built together. We had a farm to take care of and many obligations that had to go by the wayside so that I could care for my husband. As a caretaker, I had very little time to think about my own needs and over time, I deteriorated emotionally and physically.

It was gratitude and creativity that came to my rescue regularly. With my hands, I would have a conversation with God. I call my creative time my communing time. There are so many ways of prayer. Creativity is a way of prayer. The connection we have as we are creating is fertile soil for very personal communion, conversation, and insights that come through going into that zone of pure truth that comes as we are using our hands, our hearts, and our minds to know the next step to take in life. When we get into that zone, gratitude is inevitable and this changes our state of being. When we are grateful, we are healthier, stronger, and more receptive to everything good and true. We can heal. When we live in a state of grateful creativity through our own healingwe are led straight into helping others. Gratitude heals. Creativity heals. When we are healed, we can help. This is how we change the world.

It is with great enthusiasm that I highly endorse this beautiful manual of wisdom, love, and practical ideas. What a gift to the world this book is.

This is no ordinary how-to book. As you peruse the pages, it is my hope that you will feel inspired to quiet yourself enough to hear the calling of your own soul toward what is the best creative route for you to take to find yourself in a place of deep gratitude. We each need a daily practice to center us in gratitude. Inside of these pages you will find many ways to begin or continue your journey to gratitude through using your inborn gifts of creativity. I know you will enjoy and appreciate it as much as I have.

All the best to you, dear souls.

Melody Ross

Founder, Brave Living Media

Star, Idaho

Introduction

THOUGH THE IDEA OF MAKING A PRACTICE OF GRATITUDE has recently entered our cultural zeitgeist, thanks in large part to Sarah Ban Breathnachs 1995 book Simple Abundance and its exploration of gratitude journals (which inspired media mogul Oprah Winfrey to keep a gratitude journal, and, well, the rest is history), its importance as a practice actually dates back to ancient times. The Greek and Roman philosophers Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius counseled the practice of gratitude, and exhortations to be thankful are found in the sacred scriptures of every major world religion. Modern science, notably pioneered by Robert Emmons, has borne out the physiological benefits of counting our blessings. Gratitude can have a beneficial impact not only on our physical health, but also on our psychological well-being. So there are clear, time-tested reasons why making a practice of gratitude can benefit our minds, bodies, and spiritsbut even if we know that, it is not always an automatic or easy thing to do.

I rediscovered this firsthand when I had an epiphany in the Quick Lane waiting room in Colma, California, while working on this book. Over the previous few months, I had found myself becoming increasingly irritable and anxiousa condition I now refer to as BMS, which stands for Book-Making Syndromeand feeling rather overwhelmed by all the elements of my to-do list. At the time I was working on this, these included being the mother of an eleven-year-old; being a caregiver for my mother, who had advanced Parkinsons disease and dementia; being the senior ministerand sole employeeof a San Francisco church; and writing books in my free time. And on that particular day I was unexpectedly waiting for my left-front tire to be fixed, an inconvenient interruption to an already packed schedule that was not exactly welcome.