Gratitude
November 23, 2011
According to Wikipedia, Gratitude, thankfulness, gratefulness, or appreciation is a feeling, emotion or attitude in acknowledgment of a benefit that one has received or will receive.
If there was only one thing that bubbled up for me as a “lesson” from Peru, it’s that we are overwhelmingly blessed here in America, so much so that we often don’t see it. In conversations with my best girlfriends, we so easily descend into the tougher parts of life — kids that aren’t sleeping, busyness that barely lets us breathe, the responsibilities of household tasks, and the list goes on.
And life can be tough. My challenge — and the challenge for all of us, I think, is to move beyond basic thankfulness for the “things” and the people in our lives and instead approach gratitude as a lifestyle, a discipline. In the middle of a pretty crappy day, it’s not an easy practice.
Once again, Henri Nouwen, gives inspiration, saying:
“Gratitude.. goes beyond the “mine” and “thine” and claims the trust that all of life is a pure gift. In the past I always thought of gratitude as a spontaneous response to the awareness of gifts received, but now i realize that grattitude can also be lived as a discipline. The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowlege that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy.”
Sunny with a chance of wilting
December 2, 2009
Always reminds me of the vast fields of summer sunflowers in Hockenheim, Germany
We are still enjoying them.....
Tonya's Links
-
Tonya is a Community Content Producer for
WUSA9.com, DC's CBS affiliate.