Galen Pearl

Galen Pearl

Galen Pearl

At Least There’s No Volcano

My grandson, who can sometimes be a glass half empty kind of kid, was telling me the other day that he had decided to look on the brighter side of life. 

“Yep,” he said, “if I’m feeling bad, I can just look out the window and think at least there’s no volcano.” 

There is that.

I read an article a few days ago about how it was okay this Thanksgiving season to give yourself permission to not feel very grateful. Hmm…. I can’t argue with the premise that we should feel our feelings, but is feeling ungrateful really helpful? 

A different approach was chosen by my friend, who has reason after a devastating year to not feel full of thanks. She said she was practicing “ruthless gratitude.” 

Wow, what a concept. It reminds me of “fierce grace,” something I am all too well acquainted with.

But ruthless gratitude. I had to think about that one. A deliberate and determined choice to be grateful no matter what. As the Bible teaches, to give thanks “in” all circumstances even when you are not grateful “for” the circumstances. 

What would that be like? 

Some years ago, I wrote a blog and published a book titled Ten Steps to Finding Your Happy Place (and Staying There). Step 9 is to develop at attitude of gratitude. During the years I wrote and taught about this topic, I did a lot of reading and research. So many studies show that gratitude is one of the easiest habits to develop and one of the most beneficial, definitely a winner in any sort of cost/benefit analysis. 

In case you need some ideas about how to develop such a habit, I went to my old blog and linked all the posts about gratitude. There are a lot! No need to read them all, or any of them for that matter. But in case you are interested, here is the link. You might just skim through until one catches your attention and gives you an idea about something to try. 


Here is the refrain from a wonderful song about gratitude.

All that I am
All that I see
All that I’ve been 
And all that I’ll ever be
Is a blessing
It’s so amazing
And I’m grateful for it all
For it all
     ~Nimo Patel

Click here to watch a video of this song – guaranteed to lift your spirits and awaken gratitude.
And if that doesn’t work, you can always look out the window and be grateful that at least there’s no volcano! 

6 thoughts on “At Least There’s No Volcano”

  1. At least there's no volcano . . . Oh, the wisdom of the young! Galen, this is a year when it's stretched us to find our blessings and to be thankful in all of our circumstances, but I'm so grateful that God has opened my eyes to all the simple blessings He has placed in my path, and all the memories that I will ever cherish. I move on in hope and gratitude.
    Blessings!

  2. I am very grateful that 2020 is almost over! What a disastrous year, right from the start. And I continue to be grateful for all the wonderful people in my life, the physical and the virtual ones. Blessings to you, dear Galen. 🙂

  3. This is a wonderful post. I loved your book; it was so uplifting and had such great stories. Our Prophet, President Russell M. Nelson gave a challenge to the world. He invited all to flood social media for 7 days with #givethanks post. It was an amazing thing to do and to read all the give thanks posts. I do believe a grateful heart helps us get through hard times.
    I liked your Grandson's thoughts too!
    Thanks for this beautiful post!

  4. Thanks for the kind words about the book, LeAnn. I love the challenge you described. What a great way to counter all the negative energy on social media. Yes, my grandson comes up with some great stuff sometimes! Thanks for your comment.

Comments are closed.