Oasis

 For me it seems that gratitude is an oasis of my life, surrounded by a desert of whining, self-pity, resentment and self-centeredness.  I need to wake up and get right into that oasis or else I will die in spirit, and maybe literally die.  The desert is vast and it is so easy to wander around in it, accomplishing nothing of value.  It is the place where love dies of thirst for fulfillment.  I usually drift into this desert without noticing it when things begin to go against my plans, my agenda.  It is most often a small item of my agenda, such as a food item that was not purchased because someone used up the last of it and neglected to put it down on the grocery list.  Or something big, where someone in authority limits my ability to do something that I like to do.  Whatever the reason, it is the same desert.  So I have to always look for where I am.  Am I in the oasis when stuff happens?  Or have I forgotten gratitude and drifted off so that when something does not go my way, I end up too deep in the desert to get back on my own?  All this has happened in the past, and I try to keep it in the past, one day at a time.