Putting Gratitude in Perspective

4.5 billion years ago the earth was formed.

3900 million years ago life began to descend into all of the various forms that now represent it.

Between 400-500 million years ago life produced the first single cell amoeba. This was the beginning of the human nervous system and our ability to feel.

Today, the human body has about 72 trillion cells. One hundred billion neurons - roughly the same number of stars that are in our galaxy - make up the brain.

Intelligent life, in its relentless will to survive, has strategically adapted over the last 3900

million years.

In between 430 B.C. and the early months of 2020 when the world came face to face with COVID19, there have been viruses that have shaped the direction of life on the planet and taken millions upon millions of lives.

What is my point? 

Life is amazingly diverse. Resilient. Determined.

You are a frickin' miracle! The odds of you being born a human being are 1 in 400 trillion.

Yes, this year has been difficult at the least, and for many, it has been devastating.

However, in the context of the way life behaves, COVID19 is simply life doing what life has done since the beginning of time.

The beautiful surprise is that you are here, as a feeling, thinking human being who can

experience it all.

You could have stepped into life as a gnat. You did not.   

You have a tender heart that can feel compassion.

You have family and loved ones.

You have the capacity to feel loss.

There is much in life that may not feel good. However, your ability to feel love, and care so

deeply that you put the needs of others in front of yourself allows you a gloriously satisfying experience that you can articulate.

You have the ability to heal. Hope. Begin again. Create new realities.

You have the ability to witness yourself, and history, in the making.

As a sentient being in a cosmic wonderland, these are human superpowers.  

You belong to the most adaptive, capable, community-oriented species to have ever known life.

Inside of you is literally a galaxy of creative connections that afford you the extraordinary

opportunity to feel any kind of way that you choose.

You get to choose how you see your life during these times. What you focus on is up to you.

You get to tell the story of life that matters most to you.

You get to change your mind.

You get to “be with” all that life is, or, resist the parts you don’t like.

Viruses will come and go.

This Thanksgiving give thanks for the gift of life and your ability to choose how you see your place in it. Lean into your extraordinary ability to survive. If you cannot hold the hands of loved ones, hold your love for them in your heart. Then, focus on how you can THRIVE from this point forward.

Tina Lifford plays Aunt Vi on the critically acclaimed television show, Queen Sugar. The Little Book of Big Lies: A Journey Into Inner Fitness is her first book; released by Harper Collins, November 2019, and is full of the kind of internal “actions” that will transform your thinking and your life. You can also join her at a workout in her Inner Fitness Studio to practice strengthening your wellbeing and making it actionable in your day to day life.