The Gift of Gratitude
By Kathy Hendricks
Special Notice: Kathy’s book Grace in the Wound: Finding Hope in Long-Term Grief has won the Colorado Authors League award for best non-fiction/general category.
“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.” ~Brother David Steindl-Rast.
I read somewhere that the first words we read or hear each day will affect how the rest of it unfolds. With that in mind, I start each day by reading a quote from the website, Grateful Living (www.grateful.org). I subscribed to their quote of the day years ago and continue to find it refreshing and inspirational. With all of the newsfeeds that have since invaded my inbox, I am all the more appreciative of it.
Its founder, Brother David Steindl-Rast, is referred to as the “grandfather of gratitude” as he has developed a rich exploration of its value as a daily spiritual practice. When we view life from a perspective of abundance rather than deficit, it enlarges our hearts, opens our minds, and eases our anxieties. The latter is all the more vital as the divisions in our nation and the world continue to deepen.
Lest this sounds like a convenient way of avoiding the unpleasant aspect of life, it is important to note how vital gratitude is during the worst of times. I can attest to the latter by recalling a period in my life when everything seemed to fall apart. As a last resort, I took to keeping a gratitude journal. Each day, despite how I felt, I recorded one reason to be grateful. Over the course of a year, my outlook changed dramatically. Circumstances may have been difficult but I was better able to recognize that they were not the sum total of my life.
Heaven knows there is enough to worry about – the climate, the economy, the threats to the common good, and civil interaction. If each one of us paused at the beginning of the day to recount one aspect of life for which to be grateful – the beauty of a single flower, the laughter of a child, the wonder of taking a breath – our collective mindset might change, ever so slightly, to one of benevolence and peace as we embrace all that we have and are able to share. That is the gift of gratitude.
Response
by Barbara Anne Radtke
Kathy, thanks for prompting us to turn to gratitude in these times of polarization. So often we find an immediate reaction of harsh rhetoric and physical violence in today’s world. We cannot underestimate how placing ourselves in an environment of gratitude can help us see things in a light that encourages healing a breach rather than widening a gap that creates barriers to understanding.
Coincidentally, prior to the violence at the political rally last Saturday, I was engaged in a group discussion about contemplation in a time of polarization. We chose to reflect on the topic through a lecture given by Brian Robinette, which is also my Pick of the Week.
My first take-away from his presentation was the simple practices that begin us on a contemplative path. They are ones that encourage openness, depth, and surrender to stillness, e.g., a breathing exercise, focusing on an icon, an exercise in mindfulness.
My second take-away was the possibility for a genuine encounter with those we consider “the other” when we prepare ourselves with these practices.
Practices of gratitude and contemplation help us find the deep connections of our common humanity and allows us the capacity to be open to listen with intellectual honesty and generosity when we encounter difference. While it may seem that these practices are woefully inadequate to meet circumstances so frayed with discord, we may find they are a key to opening a door to a new place where we understand ourselves better as a nation and a people.
Photograph by Ron Hendricks (https://www.rjhendricksphotography.com/) Used with permission.
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