I live in gratitude, every day, and I mean it. But I’m learning that gratitude alone doesn’t keep me whole, because I can be grateful and still be hurting,I can be grateful and still feel lonely, I can be grateful and still have questions, I can be grateful and still need to be seen, heard, held, understood. For a long time I've had people tell me to live in gratitude that if I was truly thankful, happiness will just overcome me,but ive noticed gratitude isn't meant to erase my grief it isn't meant to silence my anger it isn't meant to make my needs disappear it isn't meant to make me abandon parts of myself. I can be grateful, tired, overwhelmed, confused, angry, hurting, healing, hopeful, and fed-up all at the same. My wholeness is allowing myself to acknowledge all of me. I can't keep burying parts of me cuz they can come out in horrible ways. I don't have to hide any of it from myself! Gratitude is part of my wholeness, but it was never meant to silence the rest of me