The Practice of Gratitude

Grateful Heart

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.”

Melody Beattie

This week, the Spirituality Group is considering the practice of gratitude. We have just come through the Thanksgiving holiday in America and have all expressed our gratitude for feast and family. Now is a good time to extend the idea of gratitude beyond our bodily needs.

I, for instance, live in a rarefied environment. I am a white American, who is privileged by that very singular fact. I had nothing whatsoever to do with it except to be born to my parents at a particular time and place. I realize more every day just how much I take that for granted. I wasn't born into wealth, and I'm not rich now, but I've had opportunities for education and employment I probably would not have had if I were a different race, or in another part of the world. For that I am grateful, and feel a responsibility to use that advantage to make the tiny part of the world I live in a better place.

I am grateful for the way my life has opened up over its course, to new ways of thinking, and new kinds of people. Had I not traveled, and met, and been influenced by all ilk of humanity, I would be less of a person myself. I would be suspicious of those who are different from me. I would feel insecure in their presence. My views would be narrower and less kind. I would say 'no' more often than I said 'yes'. In other words, I would limit myself to people who are just like me, who don't challenge my understanding of the world.

When we practice gratitude, when we live in it, we are simply better people. We have more compassion for others, and for human error and misdirection. Knowing that we, too, make mistakes and that our mistakes hurt others, is common ground for humility and acceptance. Gratitude changes everything, simply because it changes our hearts.

                                                             In the Spirit,

                                                                   Jane