This year has felt like one long exhale I could not quite finish. First came the loss of my mother—a pain that cut deeper than words could ever reach. Then, sickness hit me hard, as if my body decided it, too, needed to grieve. Just when I thought I could finally catch my breath, life tossed another curveball: a housing situation that required me to move fast. And right when I started to feel the storm might be clearing, I lost my federal job.

I will be honest—I started to complain. I found myself talking more about what went wrong than what was still right. The truth is, when everything seems to be falling apart, gratitude feels like a foreign language.

However, this morning, I came across a quote that hit me square in the chest:

“Gratitude turns what we have into enough.”

It reminded me that no matter what is stripped away, I still have reasons—small, sacred reasons—to give thanks.

Life Is Not Supposed to Be Easy

Let us be real for a moment. Life is supposed to hurt sometimes. Growth does not come from comfort. Instead, it comes from disruption, loss, and heartbreak. Those seasons where everything seems to unravel? They are often where God is silently doing His best work.

The pruning hurts. Nonetheless, it is necessary. Because when the noise quiets and the dust settles, you see what is real. You realize who you are, what matters, and who was never meant to stay.

Gratitude as a Survival Strategy

Gratitude does not erase the pain. It anchors you despite it. It is the voice that says, “Yes, it’s hard, but I’m still here.” It is noticing the sunlight through the blinds, the laughter of someone you love, or the peace in a single quiet moment when the world finally stops spinning.

Sometimes, maintaining gratitude means protecting your peace at all costs. If that requires you to pull away from negative energy, then do it. If it means sitting alone for a while to heal, then do it. If it means deleting, blocking, or walking away from what drains you, then absolutely do it.

You cannot pour from an empty cup. Gratitude is one way of slowly refilling it.

The Takeaway

You may not see the rainbow right now, but the storm will pass. Gratitude does not mean pretending everything is okay; it means choosing to believe that, one day, it will be.

So even if today hurts, whisper a quiet “thank you.”
Thank you for another sunrise.
Thank you for the lesson.
Thank you for the strength I did not know I had.

Because gratitude is not just about what is good. Gratitude is how we hold on when life is not.

Gratefully speaking,

Coach Erika