OPEN THE FLOOD GATES

Every year in early spring the irrigation ditch gates open for our property. The water comes flowing in from a high mountain reservoir about 40 miles from here. It waters our lawn, trees and garden. We use a pump that sits in the ditch, and on our designated water days it pumps water into our hoses. We have eight ditch shares, which for our purposes is plenty of water. Around here owning ditch shares and only using your number of shares is extremely important and sometimes cause for major disagreements and termination of speaking with a neighbor. Its so important there is a Ditch Board, officers, ditch-riders (the folks who maintain the gates and functions), meetings and voting. Each share costs a certain amount. Properties that are on the various ditches generally come with ditch shares.

Physically, water is one of just three things we actually require to survive, and without it we will die. Air and food are equally important. There’s not much else we require at the core level of life. Many people, probably most of the population in the USA, require coffee - but that’s another story. Physically we can survive with only water, air and food. (And of course, we need a new ditch pump now and then.)

Emotionally? We need the flood gates opened for an entire multitude of necessities. We need connection with other human beings, love, friendship, a true standard for discernment, stimulation, learning, rest, and good things to see and hear. And that’s just a short list of our emotional needs.

At the beginning of this year, I was invited by my friend Jill (who lives in another state) to join her in a “gratitude challenge”. It was to be a thirty-day challenge where we each wrote down five things we were grateful for, took a picture and texted it to each other. She said she chose me to ask because she knew I would follow through with her. That was a nice (if somewhat naïve on her part) compliment. Fortunately for me she didn’t know that I sometimes have commitment problems and I wander away from a task, a challenge, or even a relationship. I call it disappearing from myself. But I knew this was important to her, so I made the commitment.

When we started, we were casual friends and had never gotten down in the trenches (or should I say ditches) with each other. We had shared private things, but in a kind of superficial way. Through this challenge, I learned what a strong, resilient, amazing woman she is, and how her life has been so important and necessary to very many others. She has survived and overcome much in her life. From Jill I learned what balanced self-care and mindfulness is about. And I learned many new things about myself and where God has been busy in my life. I will forever be grateful to Jill for inviting me to this challenge.

To say my life was changed by the challenge would be an understatement. My thoughts, beliefs and attitudes were significantly and positively impacted. At the end of our thirty-day commitment, I invited another friend of mine to take this challenge with me. I didn’t want to stop.

Currently, my friend Jodie and I are about finished with our thirty days. She and I have been friends for over fifty-five years now. We have had the longest friendship I have had on this earth and I trust her with my soul. She’s the kind of friend every woman wants and should have. This has deepened our understanding of each other even more if possible. We now live across the country from each other, but it has not diminished our connection or relationship. And even more fun – the journal and pen she gave me a few months back are what I have used this entire time…I love that part also!

I don’t want to stop this practice, and I am currently considering who to invite for the third round.

You know how when you are paying attention to a certain topic or word, it seems to pop up everywhere? I participated in an online summit about conquering stress, and wouldn’t you know it, gratitude was a big part of the solution. I took an art class for a day and we had to create a mini-book, using our writing and artistic skills, and mine was about gratitude. Almost everything I read or heard seemed to be about gratitude. It’s my current favorite word, along with hiareth. Watch for that one in a coming blog.

Meanwhile, back at the ditch . . .

Upon opening the flood gates of our ditch water, the trickle is small and shallow. We watch it come slowly around the corner from the main ditch into our line. At first the ground is dry and parched. Then soon, when it has been flowing for a bit, the ditch is running full, overflowing with life giving water. We have to channel the water to other people on the ditch line so they can receive their shares. There are various small gates up and down the ditch that we open and close for others down the line.

This is very similiar to what expressing gratitude can do in our life.

It can start small and shallow. You can watch it come slowly but surely into your consciousness. Your life might be dry and parched, without hope or joy. But as the gratitude water flows through the gates, it brings life to your property – your thoughts and feelings, emotional well-being, and physical health. You will begin to notice things for which you want to be grateful. As it continues to flow, you will notice you are dealing much more healthfully with stress and struggles. And you are able to have the energy and desire to reach out and help others. You can open the water gates for your neighbors. Happiness and joy are both entirely possible when you look at any situation through the lens of gratitude.

Here are a few things I now understand about gratitude. But I am definitely excited to discover what is coming down the line to learn about it in the future. Yes – you can express and experience gratitude for what is yet to come!

• Gratitude is not a cure-all; but it is a cope-all.

• We can choose to process everything that happens in our lives through the mindset of gratitude.

• In a trial or a struggle, there is always something you can find to be grateful for. Even something bad is not completely bad.

• Gratitude offers the most positive way to think and live, and it can reduce the chronic, killing stress we all face at one time or another.

• Gratitude removes bad attitude.

• Expressing gratitude in the morning sets the tone for the entire day, it is the lens through which we can view our world with peace in our hearts.

• Long-term practice of expressing gratitude improves our physical health tremendously, and it definitely improves our mental and emotional health as well as our relationships with others.

• Gratitude brings the maturity and stability we all seek.

• Being grateful promotes self-control and abstinence.

• Gratitude produces hope.

• And – the best benefit – it will bring you closer to God. You will see how He has, and is, working for your good in this life.

“Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courtyards with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting and His faithfulness is to all generations. Psalm 100:4-5 NASB

I encourage you to have a daily habit of expressing gratitude in whatever way suits you and your lifestyle. Find a friend to do the challenge with, or do it on your own. Definitely write it down! I found an app simply called “Grateful”. It is very cool! However you do it – just do it!

Do you want to be well? Get up! Open your flood gates.