Jun 15, 2014

I am sitting here writing this on the eve of our 53rd wedding anniversary, which was June 10, 1961. The gratitude and love that fills my heart to have had the privilege of spending the past 53 years in marriage to my beautiful partner plus a little over one year falling in love has been an awesome experience. We have been fortunate to have ridden out our challenges, to have 7 wonderful children, to live comfortably at this time, and to be able to enjoy ourselves in our gardens, bonsai, our beautiful house, working for God in many ways, and just being alive in the joy of it all.

The dictionary defines the following:

Gratitude: the quality of feeling of being grateful or thankful.

Grateful: warmly or deeply appreciative of kindness or benefits received.

Gratitude is something we do not stop and let ourselves feel for all that we have, no matter how things are going; well or poorly. Most of all, we should be grateful just to be alive, to wake up in the morning, and if we are in reasonably good health to be able to rise and shine, grateful for another day.

We would be wise to express gratitude every day for what we have been given and what we are continually being given. We have food to eat, we have a roof over our head at night, we have clothes to wear. That is the basics that we all need to have in order to live. Oh yes we may wish for more, but let us be grateful for the basics to live from day to day.

The Eternal One gives and gives and gives to us, and we would receive so much more if we but open our hearts in gratitude for what we have. No, the Eternal One does not hold back because we are ungrateful, but if we are not open to receive the bountiful gifts of Love that the Eternal Spirit offers and floods us with, we will miss out on the opportunities that are before us, blinded by our ego and self-centeredness that too often occupies the majority of our time.

Being grateful to the Spirit for every breath we take, for every bite of food, for warmth in the winter and shelter from the rain, for a comfortable bed to curl up in at night — these are the fundamental gifts that fill our lives. These simple things may be not so simple (we tend to make simple things complex), but they all boil down to the same thing: we are blessed to be in the circumstances we are in. We were born with the right parents in the right place, we had the opportunities to reach for the golden ring, we have been blessed with reasonable health for the most part (after all, we are still alive), our circumstances have been such to have the chance of a good life, no matter what we have or not have.

To live a life filled with gratitude means that not only are we grateful for what the Eternal One has provided, but we have a responsibility to pass on some of the gifts given us to those who have little or none.

Even the homeless do as much, helping those newly on the streets to survive, to not starve, to give them as much warmth and human kindness as they can and as much as the other person can receive.

Are we not as giving as that? Yes, most if not all that will read what I write will have much more than the homeless, but too often we grumble because someone else has more than us.

There are those who say, “That is their problem. We have ours, let them get there own way. We have worked hard and sweated much to get what we have. What is our is ours!”

But — but! We were born here, in the United States, in reasonable straits where we could get sufficient education to have a responsible life. But what if, just what if, you were born in Sudan, where life is very tenuous, murder and mayhem are everyday events, where the odds of living a long life is next to nil, where women are owned and treated as chattel. I could go on and on. We owe gratitude and recompense to the Being that permitted us to be where we are, and not in a place where life is unpleasant to put it mildly.

And the ironic fact is, even where life is extremely unpleasant, people express gratitude just to be alive, children play and laugh. Yes, life is precious, and where life is pleasant it is great, but unless we express gratitude, our next pass in the world of the relative stands a good chance to being In the place of “not”, that is, where things are not pleasant. There we will learn to have gratitude just for life.

To be alive, to be able to taste the beauty of this world, that by itself creates a wonder all by itself. To be alive — and just to think. Look at the life of Helen Keller. Blind and deaf at six months, she learned to speak, and became a leader in showing the world that handicaps make no difference. Steven Hawkins, a long time survivor of ALS (50years), or Lou Gehrig’s disease, is one of the geniuses of the cosmology mathematical world. He is confined to a wheelchair, speaks primarily through interpreters or the computer. These examples of life lived despite great handicaps, often expressing gratitude just to be alive, give us examples of life lived fully.

Gratitude expressed is vital to our finding peace and joy in our life. It is easy to be grateful when things are going well, but when things are not going well, do we express gratitude for what we have, and for just being alive? The path for all in the future lies in our feeling of acceptance flowing into gratitude just for what we have. Just to have gratitude brings peace to our being, for then we understand that what we have is sufficient, gives us peace to pursue something more without the guilt, anxiety, and fear that will prevent us from achieving our goal. If we do not make it, we do not have the self-loathing and fear that usually occupies a long period after a failure, and so often prevents us from trying anew. Trying with gratitude for what we have brings us peace, gives us the ability to asses what happened, and gives us permission to try again and again.

Meditation

Beloved One, help us to open our hearts in gratitude for all that we have, including the simple act of being alive. We offer gratitude for Your whispers and roars to enable us to see your Presence in our lives. We offer our gratitude for all that we have, both the perceived good and the perceived bad, for all are good in Your eyes. We understand nothing happens by chance, that we are placed where we are by our choices and our actions. In gratitude we receive all that a we have and all that will be, for all is sufficient to achieve joy and peace in our lives, now and forever.