As we bring Gratitude, the new Venus Garden combination mix, forward to share, I find myself tongue tied about how to inspire folks to work with this marvelous new remedy.

In draft after draft of blogs, I sound like Pollyanna. In fact, just call me Mollyanna, because I am going to sound like Pollyanna here too.

But regardless of my tone problems, this mix deserves to have its praises sung. So, I am going to wade in. After all, Pollyanna would! And please, feel free to imagine sending me to my room like Aunt Polly did, if this sounds too much like the glad game.

In some ways, Gratitude is like other Venus Garden remedies. Several of these remedies address concerns that seem straightforward, but not terribly pressing. Take for example, Don’t Worry-Bee Happy. This remedy may seem trite since conventional wisdom suggests we can settle into happiness and leave our worries behind whenever we want, but for now, there are more important things than happiness to concern ourselves with.

The pursuit of gratitude can seem a lot like the pursuit of happiness. We all know what it is, but we think perhaps we can just save it for a rainy day- or for that gratitude holiday, Thanksgiving.

But then, Thanksgiving gives us lots of chances to spin out about stuffing recipes or brining our bird so even on gratitude day itself, the topic can get lost in the organic cranberry, citrus, and pomegranate compote with toasted pecans and star anise.

Yup. Gratitude has a marketing problem. And I doubt I will fix that, because if I looked in the mirror right now I would probably look like Hayley Mills meets Grandma Moses.

But before I give up, I will share one tidbit about gratitude that encouraged me when I realized it this afternoon.

I was out in the perennial beds cutting back plants for winter and I remembered this story of Meher Baba trying to give a blanket to the gardener at a place where he was staying. The gardener lived without any possessions. No bedding, no lamp, no furniture, nothing. But when offered the blanket, the gardener kept saying ” I have no need for this. God has given me everything I need.”

At first, I thought this was a story that left everyone with too enormous a gratitude gap, but today it occurred to me that one of the marvelous things about gratitude is that gratitude is gratitude.

Maybe all of us are a lot more materially indulged than this gardener and perhaps a lot less grateful….. BUT if we dive into gratitude we are in gratitude like a fish is in water. There are no gradations. When we plunge into gratitude there is no need to aspire to anything greater, because gratitude is gratitude.

And we can be in this state immediately without any equipment but a willing heart and perhaps a nudge from this Flower Essence mix that can show us the way to this state of being.

But why bother?

In addition to what Pollyanna would say, the truth is that gratitude is alchemy at its most miraculous. It turns our experience of our situation on a dime. No matter what is going on in our lives, gratitude takes us to that grateful and joyous state that the gardener lived in.