gratitude

so there we sat...birthday lunch...
he's 21 years old today.

he's like a son, yet so different than my own sons.
he's taught me a lot.
what a journey we've all traveled together.

and there we sat - him, me and two of my sons.

and the conversation floated onto two good topics i want
to explore more with the gang later...

'everything in moderation' - that thought that we've all heard a million times.

i used to think it a good one.....
but i'm not sure.
i think it should be examined a bit.

'how about gratitude?' i asked.
should that be in moderation???

which led to the gratitude talk.

i thought gratitude was a no brainer.
i thought we all meant the same thing when we talked about it
and everyone knew what magic it was.

maybe cause my guy and i see eye to eye on that one, and i figure if
he and i see eye to eye, then everyone must!

but i think it's much more of a slippery word than i had thought.

and much more complicated.

as i talked to his dad later, telling him about the conversation,
the whole gratitude theme went off in several different branches.
one that included aggression.
can you be really aggressive and grateful???

wow.
i had never put those two words together and thought about it.

is there a difference between gratitude and appreciation??

those kinda things.......

and i'm thinking it's a whole thing to explore.
and an important one to explore.

i think gratitude makes a person shine.
it makes life shine.

i thought it was that easy.
hmmmmm....gonna be thinking on this one a bit......