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# It Might Have Been Otherwise
- URL: https://letters.michaelmaddaus.com/it-might-have-been-otherwise-2/
- Published: 2025-09-22T10:02:08.000Z
- Updated: 2025-09-22T10:02:08.000Z
- Author: Michael Maddaus

On August 31st, I [shared a piece by Maria Popova](https://letters.michaelmaddaus.com/blog/it-might-have-been-otherwise/) that featured a poem by Jane Kenyon titled "Otherwise." I bring the poem to our attention again because, since reading the poem, it has impacted my life more than I could have imagined. 

How?

Having learned the remarkable power of gratitude in my life and the clear and powerful physiology behind its power, I have (since waking up in 2012) practiced being grateful by doing my best to keep my perspective in the right lane and by doing my best (some days better than others) to have a daily gratitude practice. 

The power of Kenyon's phrase "it might have been otherwise" is beautifully highlighted in her poem by recounting the ***simple, ordinary pleasures*** of her life that could have been otherwise. 

**OTHERWISE**  
*by Jane Kenyon*

I got out of bed  
on two strong legs.  
It might have been  
otherwise. I ate  
cereal, sweet  
milk, ripe, flawless  
peach. It might  
have been otherwise.  
I took the dog uphill  
to the birch wood.  
All morning I did  
the work I love.  
At noon I lay down  
with my mate. It might  
have been otherwise.  
We ate dinner together  
at a table with silver  
candlesticks. It might  
have been otherwise.  
I slept in a bed  
in a room with paintings  
on the walls, and  
planned another day  
just like this day.  
But one day, I know,  
it will be otherwise.

The phrase "it might have been otherwise" has transformed my moment to moment practice of gratitude in two ways: 

First, by calling to mind the phrase "it might have been otherwise" during those ordinary but precious moments of our lives, it serves as a brief forcing function that brings our mind into a moment of presence and gratitude for the ***ordinary moments*** we all experience, but so often get lost in the torrent of our relentless busyness. 

Second, if I start to whine or complain about some inconvenience or issue, it once again serves as a forcing function to immediately relieve me of my self-pity. For example, some of you may recall my bout of surgery on my knee a bit over a year ago. A preoperative nerve block damaged the nerve, leaving the bottom of my left foot dead numb, the medial aspect of my left calf weak and smaller than the right, and my toes prone to spontaneous bouts of spasms. 

This can be very frustrating, and occasionally I feel irritated and sorry for myself as it has impaired my previous lifestyle. 

But whenever I start to enter the trance of self-absorption and self-pity, I now spontaneously think of "it could have been otherwise," ***because it could have been otherwise!*** I can still walk my girl Juno as far as I want, I can go to the gym and struggle through a leg workout, and I don't have a knee replacement. 

The phrase "it could have been otherwise" serves as a powerful psychocatalytic knockout punch to the poor me always lurking in the background of our minds.