I was driving my kids and a friend of theirs back from the pool after it had just been closed due to an approaching electrical storm.  As we drove along, we were all looking up and marveling at the huge plumes of puffy dark clouds overhead.  That’s when we noticed that, in the middle of the storm clouds, there was a small opening of blue sky where sun was peeking out.  My daughter said, “oh look, that’s where the angels hang out!”  Now, I don’t know where she heard this, I certainly never told her this.  But it was so sweet the way she said it so matter-of-factly.  Well, it was as if the whole car lit up.  We talked about how fun it would be to fly a plane right through the opening and up above the clouds where the sun always shines…and maybe even hang out with the angels. Suddenly the disappointment of having to leave a fun swim day disappeared, and we were on to what fun thing we would do next.

It occurred to me later that noticing that little opening in the midst of temporary storm clouds, and contemplating the sun shining on the other side, was a lot like our practice of proactive gratitude.  Our lives can be full of stormy relationships, financial and employment turmoil or health concerns, but our willingness to look for that little patch of blue sky and celebrate it when we find it, can turn our whole experience around.  Relationship, financial and health difficulties are temporary experiences.  The changeless infinite good always exists on the other side of these experiences.  We can’t always see this, for the infinite good is often obscured by the clouds of human experience. 

So, what can help us get to the other side where “the angels hang out?”  You guessed it…gratitude.  Proactive gratitude helps us focus our attention on that one spot of bright light and, if we are willing to embrace that, and continue to give our focus to that, it begins to grow.  Temporary storm clouds then begin to move off and changeless good shines brighter and brighter into more and more areas of our life.

The next time you see storm clouds in the sky, let it remind you to look for the spot of clear sky…the area you can honestly be grateful for…and give it your full attention. Then watch as stormy conditions in your life begin to blow away.