$50,000 of Gratitude

There's a famous story about Picasso.  At the prompting of his dinner companion, he drew a figure in a few strokes on a napkin.  His companion asked for the napkin.  He told her, "Sure! Give me $50,000 and it's yours!"  "But you did it in a minute," she protested. "Ah, madam," he said, "that's where you're wrong.  That drawing took me a lifetime."  Sitting in a rented truck camper writing these words, I realize it's taken a lifetime to get here.  It isn't any one thing: Sweet Scott of CruiseAmerica who helped me over the hurtle of the making the reservation, the Angel Stranger who guided me through my first impossible turn in the truck at the taco stand, the hair raising turns on the narrow mountain highway, the delicious dinner watching a glorious sunset over Superstition Mountains at the campsite in Arizona, or the beautiful Bella of T-Mobile customer service who gifted me on Valentine's Day by getting me back online.  What about the longer timeline? The human family who has sustained me?  The steady support of my beloveds? Children, Family, Friends. Or the internal helpers who I've lived with so long?  Desires for nature, knowledge, art, music, writing, love; feet that walk, eyes that see, hands that hold. What about the natural world? Air, dirt, water, fire, insects, animals? How about the microscopic or telescopic world? Quarks, stars, mitochondria?  The list is ridiculous, of course, because it's infinite. So infinite that it's practically invisible, and taken for granted until something goes very wrong or very right.  Do we notice how easy it is to walk unless we can't? Do we thank water every time we drink a glass or wash a dish? For some of us, when we are in rough patches, we call on Help.  For others, when we are in sweet zones, we remember gratitude. It's hard to feel gratitude in tough times.  It's helpful sometimes to try counting backwards to the Help visible and invisible (how about those photons connecting me to you right now?  the makers of that bed you slept in last night or the coffee you drank this morning if you didn't sleep last night?!) when the going gets tough. And, if you can't feel them, ask them to come forward and put their arms around you and squeeze just the way you like it. Easy to say when I didn't pay $50,000 for this view of the Superstition Mountains...or maybe I did! I gotta say, it's a bargain at the price.