I was watching television and a study was being discussed that equated happiness and health, and said that they were both fostered by gratitude and positive thinking, This, they said, was news. I wondered, were we supposed to be surprised?

Then I got serious with myself snd rrealized that even what we know is news if we need to be reminded of it. The simple fact that gratitude and positive thgought can promote health and well-being should not come as a surprise. It should be so much of the farbric of our lives that we laugh when we read this - a sort of "who-are-you-telling-this-to, -silly!" kind of laugh. It should be something we do easily, as thoughtlessly as breathing.

But we do not.

I think I need to get these feelings of gratitude and overallpositive-thought on some sort of conveyor belt that daily chugs through my life. I think it may be time to become habitually thankful, addicted to gratitude. I am going to try to convert one negative experience to something for which I can be thankful each day.

As a new home owner, this should not be hard.

Two days ago I was running the dishwasher and the garbage disposal and suddenly both stainless steel sinks backed up with hot water and began to overflow. My countertops became a version of Niagra Falls, with water pooling on the floor as I ran about like a distraught chicken trying to find mops and towels and trying to stop the flood. After mopping and bailing and cursing and wailing, I tried the usual remedies - plunging, Mr Plumber, Drain-o, etc. I called around to the people I knew in town for a plumber reccommendation, but it seems the one most of them used just died. One suggested someone she had heard that someone else had used with some success.

I called this strange man and explained what had happened. He, Peter, and his assistant, a nice chap named "Boomer" spent tthree hours today "working miracles" (my pliumbers own words). I had them rip out the old disposal and they corrected a few other problems discovered along the way. Plumbing problems can be a sort of domino game, with one collapsing problem leading to another to another. But all is now presumably well. I did a load of dishes in the dishwasher and there was no cascade of hot water. My drains seem to be swallowing water at a happy rate.

And the bill, although a chunk of change, seemed fair for the work which was done.

That alone should inspire gratitude. But I am determined to milk this for every ounce of thankfulness I can.

I have found a fair plumber. Thanks be to heaven.

We discussed some extra furniture I have which was left in the house when I bought it that I am willing to give away, and he is going to help me match it with a person he knows who has very little. So that is also great.

The experience itself modelled something about spiritual living. One clog leads to another. It isn't always enough to just clear our what seems to be the problem, without tracing it as deeply as we can to find the many places where we may be clogged or blocked. Oh, we can jerry-rig some solution to handle the problem for a little while, but it will catch up with us eventually and need to be dealt with. Plumbing models life.

I want everything about this home to reflect my thankfulness. And if things need to be repaired or adjusted, then thanks be to God that I get the chance to do it. How lucky are we with homes, with a roof over our head, with heat in out furnaces and food in our refrigerators? How often do we pause to understand how unique we are to have this bounty, and how obligated we are to share it and what we have so abundantly with others?

To complain about any of it would be, as my dear departed auntie used to say, "like spittin' in God's eye."

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Related blogs:

Jenn in Jennapillar lists a gratitude list for the week. This sounds like a super spiritual discipline to me.

Quote's Queen in her blog suggests writing real hand written thank you notes to people whom you owe gratitude. Again, a fine practice.

Erin at Creativite suggests a journal scrapbook in which each day she enters an artful page on a topic of gratitude. She also shows a copy of her scrapbook journal.