There I was, in a retreat setting nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. My intentions this weekend were to play with my brand new laptop, learn all its bells and whistles and to write my editorial. After a great night’s rest, I awoke all refreshed and rarin’ to go.

I lovingly and carefully extracted my beautiful new laptop from its padded case, flipped up the cover and turned it on. That wonderful reassuring beeptone greeted me. Ah, this was going to be fun! The search to find MS Word took less than a minute. I clicked on the button, eagerly anticipating my fingers flying across the keyboard. A new window popped up informing me that a certain font was corrupt and that it must be taken care of. I clicked the OK button figuring I’d get to that later. another screen emerged. Seems another font was bad. Again I clicked OK only to find out another one popped up, then another and another and another. This went on for 15 minutes! I didn’t even know I had so many fonts! My now, frustration had set in, so I closed the computer down and decided that I’d better take a walk to help shift my perspective.

The autumn air was crisp and cool as I walked along the pathway leading to a wooded area. I meandered off into the woods for a little while and soon felt myself shifting back into exhilaration and joy. OK, I was ready to give it another shot.

Back to the room, computer on, same sequence, same windows kept coming up, one after the other. I tried some other programs but there just didn’t seem to be anything else that would let me type onto a blank page without giving me the font warnings. This went on for quite some time as I became determined to find the solution. suddenly a window appeared announcing that the battery was low. I dug around in the suitcase and realized the cord I needed to hook up to the electric current was still back in Michigan.

After a deep sigh, I resigned myself to the fact that if any writing was to be done this weekend, it would have to be done with the old method or putting pen to paper.

Another walk took me deeper into the woods area where the sounds of nature calmed my frustration. My sense of well being returned and I was feeling a whole lot better. As I came out of the woods, a weathered wooden rocker sitting on the grass beckoned me. The blue ridge mountains created a breathtaking panorama as I gently rocked back and forth. a few birds occasionally came into view gliding in and around the air currents. Other than that, it was just nature and me. I sat there for the longest time, just drinking in the majesty before me. My frustration became a thing of the past.

Nature gave me the best lesson that day. As my dear friend Abraham says, the best way to shift yourself out of a negative place is to feel appreciation because you cannot feel negative emotion and gratitude at the same time.

The gratefulness I felt inside more than shifted me, it brought things back into perspective. The world doesn’t end of you don’t have electricity. You don’t stop thinking because of a computer glitch.

In November, one day is set aside for us to count our blessings and to express thankfulness for all the things in our lives. Would it be wonderful to do it more often? Imagine a world where everyone practiced gratitude on a daily basis.

So my wish for all of us this month is to consciously be aware of the times when we can give thanks and express our gratitude for all the things, however small, that are going well for us. Developing an attitude of gratitude will keep you plugged in to your Universal Flow of well being.

The world moves in step with a grateful heart. Give thanks!