Challenge yourself to be grateful no matter the situation.

Take Pen to Paper: Edition 59

Hi! Pen to Paper readers,

Welcome to new subscribers! I’m glad to have you here.

Let’s talk about going deep with gratitude.

In this newsletter:

1. Bad stuff happens.

2. We control our words and actions.

3. Examples of people who made the best of bad.

4. Finding gratitude in every situation.

Bad events touch each of our lives at some point.

I struggled with my choice of the word “bad” because so much is worse than bad. What is bad for one person is an inconvenience for another or a tragedy for yet another. It’s a matter of perception.

If you haven’t personally experienced something bad, you only need to look at the news reports to see the horrors or catastrophes many people live through. Wars, violence, fires, hunger, and the list goes on.

We may not have done anything to cause the bad event. We suffer from it anyway.

There is much in the world we do not control. What are we to do?

Understand what you control when dealing with the bad.

I’ve written before about Stoicism. The Stoic philosophers believed developing virtues within ourselves would help us live in harmony and help us have a well-lived life.

One lesson repeated in Stoicism is understanding what you control.

You control your thoughts, words, and actions.

When bad things happen, you control your response.

With an understanding of what you control, you’re more prepared to respond to bad events of all sizes, from the inconvenient to the catastrophic. Understanding what you control plays a role in mindset.

Mindset makes the difference in the ultimate outcome of a situation.

Look at the many examples of people who experienced bad and did something good.

British musician Sally Beamish chose to make something good come from a personal disaster.

Beamish has a freelance viola career. When her viola was stolen, she consciously decided to have something positive come of it. She had always wanted to compose music. Here’s what she said about the experience.

“I wanted to be able to look back and say: “If my viola hadn’t been stolen, then I would never have…” And what I wanted most of all was to become a full-time composer.”

Can you imagine saying that when the means of your career disappears? Yet, her conscious choice brought happiness to her and others.

There are many stories of charities having their beginning in the devastation of losing a child.

Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation is one such example.

During Alex’s short life, the foundation raised over one million dollars towards finding a cure for childhood cancer. Cancer took Alex at the young age of eight. Since its beginning, the foundation has raised $250 million, funding over one thousand projects at 150 institutions.

Again, something good comes from something bad.

There are many examples just like these.

How do we find gratitude in every situation, even the bad?

It may not be the situation itself we are grateful for, but our ability to lean into what we control. Like Sally Beamish and Alex, with her family in the above examples, their response to the bad brought them gratitude.

My first week of writing online was the week my father unexpectedly passed away. It was summer, and I had just returned from visiting him, hearty and healthy as always.

I had signed up for an online course (it was summer!), which turned out to be good for me.

Writing gave me an outlet for the emotions that come with the death of a loved one. Living away from extended family, I needed an outlet. Between journaling and writing essays for X(Twitter at the time), I allowed myself to show my vulnerable side.

That was two years ago, and now I have a newsletter to share gratitude and good with others.

We can be grateful for our words and actions in response to bad experiences. Our response is where good comes from, which affects us and those around us.

We should always be grateful for good.

When a tree is in the way, make the fence go around it and put a bench to rest on in front. Photo by S.G.S. Abel

7 Days, 7 Thoughts on Gratitude and Good:

1. A quote: “It is easy to praise providence for anything that may happen if you have two qualities: a complete view of what has actually happened in each instance and a sense of gratitude. Without gratitude what is the point of seeing, and without seeing what is the object of gratitude?” -Epictetus 🙏

2. I have mentioned before that I have learned about virtues and developed an understanding of what I control from reading Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic. I’m grateful for the lessons I’ve learned from it.

3. You can listen here for a sample of composer Sally Beamish’s music. 🎶

4. I read Sally Beamish’s story in Year of Wonder by Clemency Burton-Hill. In this book, Burton-Hill writes about a piece of classical music each day of the year. She created an accompanying Spotify playlist for you to listen to each piece of classical music she writes about. I’ve enjoyed expanding my very limited knowledge of classical music with this. It would make a great gift! 🎻

5. I couldn’t resist sharing this video of paint dots swirling through color all set to Chopin’s music. Enjoy. 🎨

6. Look here to learn more about Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation. 🍋

7. I am grateful for one of my best friends, who wrote a nice post about me and my newsletter on her FaceBook page. While I am not currently experiencing a bad situation, I am reminded how our friends are there to help us through the tough times.

Thank you for joining me this week.

I hope you are not currently in a bad situation. However, if you are, try leaning into what you know you control.

Until next week,

💚

Susan

As always, leave a comment. I love connecting with my readers.

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🎁As promised, this gift will be posted throughout November.🎁

I have created a free gratitude template for you to either:

• start a gratitude practice

• stretch your gratitude practice

The template is 31 topics and example sentences for gratitude. Thirty-one topics will get you through each day in any month. Isn’t November a great time to start?

I’ve said it several times, gratitude brought me more than I imagined, so it’s natural for me to recommend it.

I love having a guide and examples when I take on a new endeavor. That’s what I hope this is for any who would like to use it. There are three ways to access the template.

1. Access and make a copy of this Google Document

The Daily Gratitude Habit Jumpstart

2. Go to The Daily Gratitude Jumpstart by clicking this link https://sgsabel.gumroad.com/l/DailyGratitudeHabitJumpstart. Or enter it into your browser.

   When you scroll down the page, you should see this (without my red mark):

2. In the “Name a fair price” box I marked in red, put the numeral “0” because this is free! You provide your email, and a copy will be sent to you to download.

3. You can also access Gumroad through my website, takepentopaper.com where you will find a link to the site described above.

Hopefully, I will have at least one reader try each method to make sure I did everything correctly on my end. 🤞(If using technology was a virtue, it would be greatly lacking in me.) If you have any problems, let me know.

Remember, the template is not month-specific. Use it any time.