Thank you...I have no complaints

Thank you for everything. I have no complaints whatsoever is the mantra a Zen monk named Sono gave to all of her students in each and every situation. Holy Schmoly. Really? One of my not-always-so-fun-and-helpful strengths is that when I see situations I see things for what I believe they could be, or I think I see what could be better and then I act on that instinct. This very useful in lots of what I do and not so useful in lots of what I do. This would be a good time to refer back to anything I have ever written about expectations. Now that I write that, maybe I should go back and read everything I have ever written about expectations. This may be part of my life’s work.

Let’s just take a recent example when I was doing something I love…shopping.
I went into a small local boutique and on this particular Saturday afternoon there were no other customers. There was an adult woman and a tween behind the counter eating MdDonald’s fries. Not only did they not speak to me when I entered, but about ten minutes into my visit they had not yet acknowledged my presence ( I was trying things on) until… they told me that I needed to leave because they were closing (let’s be clear this would never happen at the Wardrobe, owned by yogi Kim Dixon). Seriously, I did leave with a complaint (that until now stayed in my head…except for the few friends I told…yikes) and just for the record I left without an expensive sweater.

I am so grateful that noone can actually see inside my head and then know how icky I sound (although likely I have outed my ickyness before now). I told one of my bosses last year that the inside of my head really sounds like Stewey the nasty, mean spirited baby (I know babies in real life can’t be nasty) on Family Guy.

It seems like a very challenging practice that might help steer me more towards gratitude rather than grumbling. What do I have to lose? I am going to pick a day…hmmm…let’s say tomorrow and I’m gonna give it a shot. The world could use one more grateful person.

Thank you for everything. I have no complaints whatsoever.