GRATITUDE: Finding a Light in the Darkness

As the Thanksgiving season is fast approaching, I want to take a moment today to touch on the spirit and importance of gratitude. Many experiences in my life have shown me the power of gratitude, like mindfulness journaling (shout out to my Sophomore English Teacher, Mrs. Fred), sitting in the beauty of nature, and, of course, reading.

I mentioned The Hunger Games in one of my earlier blog posts as the beginning of my passion for reading. This series changed my life so completely that I often return to it, and it has yet to quit providing me with life lessons and moral truths every time I pick it up.

For anyone who has not read the series, I highly, highly recommend it (my font does not get bold enough to express how highly I recommend this book). There are so many deep truths and hard realities mirrored in our own times. This series confronts our humanity and forces us to question how we treat others. I cannot express how deeply this series has impacted the way that I live my everyday life. I will link the series at the end of the post, so trust me on this one – put these books at the top of your TBR list RIGHT NOW.

I will save you the summary of the series, partly because I want you to read the books for yourself and partly because this quote can stand alone and still be a masterpiece of morality. So, let’s dive right in!

Today, I am going to discuss a small detail, perhaps forgotten by many readers (though I hope not). This detail is found in the last two paragraphs of the epilogue of the last book.

“I make a list in my head of every act of goodness I’ve seen someone do. It’s like a game. Repetitive. Even a little tedious after more than twenty years. But there are much worse games to play.”

This is the note that Suzanne Collins chose to end the series on – gratitude. The main character, Katniss, has just lived through horrific, despicable times. She fought bitterly for her life only to see her loved ones die and be unable to do anything to stop it. She lived through a bloody civil war that left everyone scarred, physically and mentally. Katniss’s soul has been bloodied, battered, bruised, and very nearly destroyed through these events.

Yet, she still speaks of gratitude. She explains that gratitude is how she has survived all these years. Gratitude keeps her going when it feels impossible.

Gratitude can be a light in the darkest times. It is so easy, especially in our modern society with social media, violent rhetoric, and division, to get sucked into a negative black hole where everything feels impossible. We can look at our world with assassinations, wars, and genocides weighing heavily on our hearts, and think, How can we continue on? What’s the point of hope in this dark, doomed world?

I know that in these past few months, the reality of darkness in the world has felt like a stormy broiling cloud blinding me from goodness, truth, or beauty. However, in these moments of despair, I return to Mockingjay, and this quote that ends the entire series. During the moments when I fear that the world has lost any semblance of humanity, I stop and make a list of every moment of true kindness and true love and true goodness that I have seen in the world. I play Katniss’s game, and it changes everything.

Taking small moments out of the day to simply recognize the vast number of people, actions, and things that we can be thankful for works wonders and pushes back against that negative black hole. Over the years, I have even expanded the game to include pointing out things that I am grateful for in this singular moment.

For example, I am sitting at my desk writing this blog post right now. I am grateful to have a pumpkin cinnamon candle burning on the shelf beside me. I am grateful for the Christmas lights hanging in the room, adding to the mood. I am grateful for the furnace pumping warm air into the room while it is a frigid 31 degrees outside. I am grateful for the warm cup of Lady Grey tea sitting on my Abraham Lincoln coaster. I am grateful for this computer and my desk and the YouTube mood music playing in the background and the cozy blanket on my lap and the soft sweater I am wearing, and the list could go on and on and on. I am simply grateful for the breath in my lungs and the blood pumping through my veins enabling me to exist in this moment.

When I started writing that list, I groaned and struggled to find one thing I was grateful for, but once I started writing, it was hard to stop. Gratitude can change everything. The darkness is stifling and consuming. However, one moment of gratitude is enough to push back the curtain. The darkness doesn’t stand a chance against gratitude because the darkness can never truly win as long as we have the courage to hold on to one piece of light.

Gratitude is a virtue. In my relatively short time on this Earth, I have seen how tragic it is when people do not have the virtue of gratitude. Ungrateful people are the loneliest because their constant negativity pushes others away. They cannot even find the smallest thing to bring joy to their lives. It seems as though the world is out to get them, so they shut themselves off from the world. They play the victim and build a wall around themselves in an effort to shut out the darkness, but the tragedy is they often close themselves into the darkness. I know this because I have lived without gratitude for seasons in my life.

Again, I say, gratitude is a virtue, and it is a virtue that we must cultivate. I am so eternally grateful to Suzanne Collins for writing The Hunger Games and for ending the series with gratitude. No matter how completely awful Katniss’s life got, she never gave up because she had the virtue of gratitude and found light even in the darkest times. We must all work to cultivate this virtue in our own lives. Gratitude is the only way to fight back against the darkness of this world that aims to suffocate us. Gratitude helps us find the light in the darkness.

Amazon Link: The Hunger Games Trilogy Box Set

As always, please leave any comments, questions, or suggestions below.

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