Gratitude Journal

Since I opened my bookstore I haven't been able to watch Oprah in the afternoons. I've admired Oprah for a long time but there are times when she has really annoyed me. One of those annoyances came from my perception that if a mother and daughter were in conflict on her show, Oprah always takes the side of the daughter regaradless of the situation. She's been a duaghter but she's never lost a fortnight's sleep over a child's illness or a daughter leaving home and moving across the country. When everyone else was cheering and congratulating Oprah for her tough interview with James Frey, I thought she seemed self righteous and condesending.

All of that aside I am thankful to Oprah for introducing me to the concept of the gratitude journal. It was pretty easy to find things to be grateful for because my life has been blessed by my children, my husband's children and all those grandkids. Gratitude has it all over music when it comes to soothing the savage beast. Even in the darkest hours I can conjure up reasons to be grateful.

At Oprah's urging I started writing down a few things I was thankful for every day and eventually a pattern emerged. I would write down things like the how beautiful the river was that morning on my drive to Longview or how warm my dog is when he's cuddled up next to me while I read or watch TV. I'd list good health, good weather, good conversation, my ability to observe and write. You get the picture. It's so easy.

Eventually I realized that there was one entry that I wrote every day. Sometimes twice a day. I am grateful for my husband. Every day I am grateful that my partner is such a gentle, funny, generous, intelligent man. I get to spend my life with the man whose face I'm always glad to see. I don't even care that the grandkids seem to like him best. I like him best too.

I knew I loved him and he loved me but I didn't realize how importand he was in my life until his name popped up every day for a year in my journal.

So thanks Oprah for a fine idea. And thank God for all of his blessings, especially the one I married.

Blessed Are the Peacemakers

One of my favorite poems is "The Second Coming" by William Butler Yeats. It's a brilliant piece wirtten at a time of conflict and despair. I like the poem because I can read it and know that every generation at some time or another feels like things couldn't get worse. It gives me confort when I'm thinking the same thing.

The first stanza contains the most quoted lines:
The best lack all conviction while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Ain't it the truth? Our leaders have led us into an impossible war with all of the passionate intensity and conviction imaginable. They didn't listen to advisors who said it was a bad idea. There was no plan for management or withdrawl. I am as astonished at this foolishness as I was when Nixon was elected President. How could this happen? We may have been misunderstood by the rest of the world in the past. But now I think they understand all too well. We've become the aggressor without a plan.

The other night Bill Maher suggested we should give Iraq back to Saadam Hussein. He's a bad guy but he had knowledge we didn't. He held his country together by fear. Not an admirable method, but an effective one. Maher was kidding, of course, but he had a point.

I have eleven grandchildren. The oldest is almost twelve. She doesn't deserve to inherit a world at war. She deserves leaders with a little less conviction and a lot more reason. Those eleven beautiful children deserve a promising futrure in a country where they can grow and thrive and give the best to their children and grandchildren.

The answer is not to despair but to pay attention. Get involved. Stir things up a little. Write your representatives. Believe me, all of this goes against my peacemaking nature. I've never carried a sign in protest and I've avoided conflict my entire life but I can't be quiet about theis insantiy any longer.

The last part of my plan is to pray. You don't have to join the 700 Club or procalim your faith to strangers. Just take a few quiet momnents to contemplate q peaceful world and pray for your vision to come to fruition. It can't hurt.

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of god."