Attitude of Gratitude

“An Attitude of Gratitude”
Every day there is a thank you to be said. Every single day, a thank you, a new one. Every day it behooves us to stare into our open and cupped hands and picture there something we have been given for which we are grateful. Every day there is a thank you to be said.
A new one.

These words are in the Hindu text, the Rig Veda:

Sweet be the night,

sweet the dawn,

sweet the earth’s fragrance,

sweet be our Heaven!

Thank you.

Every single day, a thank you.

How nice it is to have another day of life.
Every day that begins with a thank you creates an attitude of gratitude -- creates a day of hopeful receptivity. Isn’t that the way to live?

All of us are used to Thank You’s.

Thank you for the birthday gift.

Thank you for the ride to church.

Thank you to the restaurant servor who’s just re-filled your coffee cup.

Thank you for your call.

Thank you for your thoughtfulness.

Thank you for all the hard work you did.

Thanks to your associate who ran out to get lunch for everyone.
Some of us have family customs of saying Grace before a meal.

One family I know goes around the table at dinner time so that each person may speak about one blessing they received that day, and one blessing they gave.
These are the words of a Mennonite Blessing:

Thank you for the wind and rain

and sun and pleasant weather,

thank you for this our food

and that we are together.

The physical self writes, and hugs, leans close to listen, holds hands or shakes hands, and smiles and nods toward others.

Our social world resounds with thank you’s - sincere thank you’s, heartfelt thank you’s, automatic thank you’s. And thereby we live, in polite and caring proximity, a tribute to human civility and compassion.

These are the words of Daphne Rose Kingma:

In relation to others,

gratitude is good manners;

in relation to ourselves,

it is a habit of the heart and a spiritual discipline.

There are times when we feel the great need to say thank you, and there’s no one or nothing to say it to: A lovely sunset, caught by a glance to the west, at the clearing after a storm; so touched by the beauty, you experience a sense of gratitude.

A time of stepping back to realize how grateful you may be for a particular person or persons in your life. A particularly profound moment in which you may feel the surge of gratitude for being alive - right here, right now.

These are the words of Saint Augustine:

“[People] go abroad to wonder at the height of mountains,

at the huge waves of the sea,

at the long courses of the rivers,

at the vast compass of the ocean,

at the circular motion of the stars, a

nd they pass by themselves without wondering.”

[Now, let us] acknowledge the wonder of our physical incarnation--that we are here, in these particular bodies, at this particular time, in these particular circumstances. May we never take for granted the gift of our individuality.”

At such moments, the physical self is in full attitude; you will actually feel a sensation in your heart of a vast openness, and of poignancy - that bittersweet sadness that can signal tears.

I believe that at those moments, we are filled with the sense of great love available to us and through us.

It is a breakthrough moment - from ordinary living to a momentary glimpse of the source and meaning of life.

Gratefulness is the full response of the human heart to the gratuitousness of all that is.

Truly every single thing we have has been given to us, not necessarily because we deserve it, but gratuitously, for no known reason.

And whatever source we believe is the giver -- some concept of God, or simply the breathtaking randomness of the universe -- when we give thanks, we take our place in the great wheel of life, recognizing our connection to one another and to all of creation.

Having an attitude of gratitude plugs us in to the aliveness of the world.

These are the words of Martha Graham:

There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost, the world will not have it.”

Prayer is an intimate little ritual of request and thanksgiving. A negotiation with the mystery of life, perhaps, but also an expression of all that is “yes” in our daily experiences.
There is always a need to pay attention to beauty, kindness, and mystery, and there is always a need to express gratitude. Cultivating an attitude of gratitude is psychologically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually healthy, so, rituals of thanksgiving become not only useful but necessary to our complete well-being. The body seeks an attitude of gratitude, as does the mind and heart. Call it what you will - prayer, dance, song - such feelings must find human form.

Gratitude arises in us, it seems to me, when we become aware of these things: Innate Beauty, Created Beauty, Kindness and Caring, and Mystery. And, the way to become aware is in the act of Paying Attention to the details of life and living.

Created beauty is the work of our hands and mind, found in the arts and traditions, sciences and innovation.

O, Ground of Being,

Thank you for free verse and free thinking;

Thank you for tapestry and flying buttresses;

Thank you for the circle;

Thank you for theories and cures and choirs;

Thank you for tea ceremonies, and napkins.

Kindness and Caring is experienced through authentic experiences of compassion, concern, respect, and through acts of love.

O, Love,Thank you for babies and children,

and even for teenagers;

Thank you for chicken soup;

Thank you for letters to the editor and conflict management;

Thank you for the pleasure of touching;

Thank you for kisses, yes, especially for kisses.

These are the words of Mother Teresa:

We may wonder whom can I love and serve? Where is the face of God to whom I can pray? The answer is simple. That naked one. That lonely one. That unwanted one is my brother and my sister. If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.

Mystery is the hovering and encompassing unknown. Questions that lead to answers lead only to questions again. What we know is never all that we can know. What we know today is more than we knew yesterday and less than we will know tomorrow. Time is Nature’s way of keeping everything from happening all at once, so there can only be patience, curiosity, trust, and the long work of seeking.

These are the words of the Sacred Song of the Sikhs:

I bow to the One who has no color,

I bow to the One who has no beginning.

I bow to the One who is without fault,

I bow to the One who is incomprehensible.

I bow to the One who has no treasure,

I bow to the One who is indestructible.

I bow to the Bountiful.I

bow to the Unlimited.

PAYING ATTENTION is the key to the mystery, the beauty, and the love we experience in life. PAYING ATTENTION is therefore the key to gratefulness.
Without seeing the lively and precious details of innate beauty, created beauty, kindness and caring, and Mystery, we will never be surprised by the rich and elegant gift of sentient Being -- and Thanksgiving will be lost.

These are the words of Molly Fumia:

To be joyful in the universe is a brave and reckless act.

The courage for joy springs not from the certainty of human experience, but the surprise.

Our astonishment at being loved, our bold willingness to love in return--these wonders promise the possibility of joyfulness, no matter how often and how harshly love seems to be lost.

Therefore, despite the world’s sorrows, we give thanks for our loves, for our joys and for the continued courage to be happily surprised.

I wish for you a grateful heart, and many chosen occasions for praise and blessing, so that Thanksgiving will live within you all the days of your life.

Benediction written in 1513, by Fra Giovanni

There is nothing I can give youwhich you do not have;

But there is much, very much,

thatwhile I cannot give it,

you can take.
No heaven can come to us unless our heartsfind rest in today.

Take heaven!

No peace lies in the future which is not hiddenin this present instant.

Take peace!
The gloom of the world is but a shadow.

Behind it, yet within reach, is joy.

There is a radiance and glory in the darkness,

could we but see,and to see,

we have only to look.

I beseech you to look.
-Amen and Shalom