Posted November 4, 20219:24 am
By Lauren Hamilton, Legal Aid Society of Cleveland
I woke up early Saturday morning in a grumpy mood. I was angry at myself for having signed up at the last minute to run the CMBA’s 20th annual Halloween Run for Justice 5k. What was I thinking?! It was a typical Cleveland fall day – chilly and drizzling – the perfect weather for sleeping in. The last thing I wanted to do was run several miles under the saturated, gray sky, but I stuck to my word and headed downtown with my sleepy running buddy, a golden retriever rescue named Will. When we arrived at One Cleveland Center and got in line to pick up my race packet, I realized I had forgotten my headphones. Ugh…not only was I about to run a race I no longer wanted to run, I had to do it without music, with just my thoughts to keep me company. Will and I took our positions at the starting line, and immediately, when the race started and we began running, I felt the energy of the group surge through me. I sensed Will’s excitement about his first run in a mass of people. I surrendered to the present moment and the sights and sounds of the city around me and allowed myself to feel the sense of gratitude that was washing over my experience as I placed one foot in front of the other. I thought about how lucky I was not only that I was alive, but that my body had shown up, that I was strong and capable of running a 3.2 mile race. After all, this body has survived an incredible amount of hardship – drug and alcohol addiction, two bouts with cancer, multiple surgeries, a global pandemic. As I approached the 2 mile signpost, the sense of gratitude I was feeling had pervaded every cell of my body. When Will and I crossed the finish line, I knew that my mood had been completely transformed. I was thankful that I had shown up and run. I was grateful that I was alive.
It is almost unbelievable to me that 2021 is almost over, but here we are in the month of November. The month of Thanksgiving. The month of gratitude. As we continue to trudge through this pandemic, it can be difficult to live life from a perspective of gratitude. Especially for those among us who have lost family members or friends to the pandemic, identifying the things for which we are thankful can, at times, feel like we’re looking for a needle in a haystack. And, as attorneys, our worlds are usually moving too fast for us to take the time to slow down and really feel what it means to be thankful. Yet it is crucial for our own mental sanity and wellbeing, and for our shared humanity, that we continue to identify those things and to cultivate the practice of gratitude. Why? For one simple reason – gratitude is transformative. The benefits of living life from the perspective of gratitude, from cultivating the practice of gratitude, are innumerable and priceless – an increased sense of peace of mind, improved relationships, enhanced empathy, better self-esteem, a reduction in stress, sounder sleep, greater happiness, and the list goes on.
So, as we approach the holiday season, I challenge you to begin the practice of gratitude. From now until the end of the year, take one or two minutes out of each day to identify three things for which you feel grateful, and write them down in a journal. They don’t have to be big things; they don’t even have to be positive things. After you have identified those things and put them on paper, take another minute or two to reflect upon why they make you grateful, what they inspire in you, how they make you thankful to have shown up and to be alive. Take this challenge and practice it with intention until the end of the year. I promise you that you will come out of it feeling transformed.
I will leave you with the words of the late poet, Mary Oliver, in her poem ‘The Uses of Sorrow’. Maybe it will inspire you to cultivate the perspective of gratitude.
(In my sleep I dreamed this poem)
Someone I loved once gave me
a box full of darkness.
It took me years to understand
that this, too, was a gift.
Very gratefully yours,
Lauren K. Hamilton, Esq.
Lauren Hamilton is a Senior Attorney at The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland. She defends low-income tenants in eviction cases in the Right to Counsel program. Lauren has been a member of the CMBA and the Mental Health and Wellness Committee for many years. She believes in the transformative power of gratitude and mindfulness meditation. She a certified yoga teacher and an avid runner; she can be spotted running the streets of Lakewood with Will the golden retriever. Lauren welcomes connections in the Cleveland legal community, and invites anyone who wants to chat about wellness, meditation, and/or recovery, to reach out via email at lhamilton@lasclev.org.
-
Read the story at Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association: Mental Health & Wellness: What are you thankful for? - CMBA News and Information (clemetrobar.org)