A Meditation on Gratitude
As Thanksgiving has just passed here in the US, it’s that time of year when we think about gratitude. Of course, it’s always a good time to think and talk about gratitude. But this morning we want to share a few specific thoughts that might show the practice of gratitude in a light that you haven’t seen it before, maybe encouraging you (and us) to bring a little more thanksgiving into every day.
Gratitude is really THE foundational spiritual practice. In our studies of sanctuary across the world and the role that gratitude plays, we’ve found that it is universal in every faith—many prayers actually begin with giving thanks before anything else.
In this way gratitude is an acknowledgment of our tiny place in an overwhelmingly vast cosmos, and an acknowledgment of how much of a blessing it is to simply exist—to experience this life, to breathe, to love, to strive. There is an incredible abundance in the mere fact that we get to simply be here on this beautiful Earth. Gratitude is simply the most basic response of the human spirit to the Divine.
Gratitude is a practice, but it is also a posture. Gratitude for our life and breath brings with it a built-in humility—an understanding that so many good things have come into our lives that we ourselves did not cause to be. We are the beneficiaries of so many wonderful gifts from the countless people who came before us and so many that are still here with us. Simple things like roads, laws, running hot water, and indoor bathrooms are incredible luxuries when compared to how common people lived only a few lifetimes ago.
Gratitude is also a lens through which we can see the world. Viewed through this lens, our lives take on a different hue. Some believe that seeing the world in this way actively changes reality, showering us with even more abundance, forming a virtuous circle of even more gratitude for even more abundance.
Others believe that while focusing on thankfulness does not actively change reality, it certainly changes our experience of it. We see more of what we choose to focus upon, and if our mind is seeking ways to be thankful for every experience, we will continually find more and more reasons to be grateful.
Whether one subscribes to the first belief or the second, can you think of a more joyful way to live?
Gratitude is a doorway to a deeper experience of life on this planet, especially when hard times come. We’ve all been in places when it seemed as if we couldn’t go on. When our daughter Chloe started having seizures, that was a dark time for us. We have friends and loved ones upon whom so much senseless tragedy has been visited that we have wondered how they find the strength required to pick up their lives and move forward.
When hope has evaporated, when faith in any divine goodness is lost, it is gratitude that can rekindle those fires within us and give us that strength. Gratitude for little things. For friends that give us space to grieve without judgment. For a sibling that accepts us no matter what. For even for a rainbow in the sky when we are wondering if our agonized cry has even been heard at all.
Gratitude, in those small, fleeting moments, is what pulls us back to the moment, and back into communion with the Divine. It reconnects us with that loving web of care of which we are all a part, with nature, and with the true spirit of love.
One of the things that we are counting chief among our blessings this year is YOU, dear reader, for taking the time to read and consider and sometimes even send us a message or comment. Thank you, for being part of this sacred, sanctuary space with us.
With so much love,
Lisa and Philip