At least their name isn't Nimrod

On gratitude:

Last weekend, a bunch of us grad students were talking about weird names so of course the names got weirder and weirder. But at some point, someone said, "At least their name isn't Nimrod." To which someone responded, "Um, you know your name is pretty bad when the only name worse is Nimrod." And that's definitely one way to look at things, but I'm wondering if gratitude hanging even on the slimmest of slivers is worth having.

The past few weeks I've been really stressed out, at an anxiety level that I haven't been in for a long time. Life just seemed like a noose getting tighter and tighter. I was juggling more than I knew how to handle when I was thrown a lifeline in this reminder:

Gratitude is attentive. When we are inwardly dissipated through busyness, obsession, addiction, mindlessness, and preoccupation with television, sports, gossip, movies and shallow reading, and so forth, we cannot be attentive to the gifts that arrive each day.
~ Brennan Manning, Ruthless Trust

When I am stressed, I self-medicate by surfing the web to the point where I've read everything and I don't know what else to read. It's like a merry-go-round I don't know how to get off of. Manning suggests that gratitude is what throws the switch.

Honestly, I do have a lot on my plate. I do have to prepare for a conference in Denmark, but that conference is being funded by departments and divisions in a time of budget cuts. And I get to go with friends I like. Yes, I do have to edit my book chapters, but hey I have book chapters that are going to be in press and on shelves in a year. And yes, I am doing "spring" cleaning, but it's because I live in a world of plenty and have a vibrant life of the mind that spawns paper like magic dust bunnies. There are many, many uncertainties about the future, but I get to face them with a really great husband.

So for all my myopic moping of the last few weeks, I don't even have to resort to a comparative "At least my name isn't Nimrod." There's a wealth of wonder here already if I'd only pull my head out of my butt.