Notes on the Journey: Gratitude

Notes on the Journey: Gratitude

Gratitude.  Gratitude is the true and simple recognition of Grace in our lives.  Often considered the greatest of all virtues, gratitude is the parent of all the others for gratitude is the doorway through which we experience the expansive states of joy, equanimity, ease, happiness and bliss. 

At any moment in life, there is always something to be grateful for.  Consider the friend of beloved who is ever there to support and uplift you, the dear teacher or mentor who has kindled your passion and helped to reveal your talents and gifts, the child who makes you giggle, the natural beauty of the tree in your backyard, the "luck" of running into an old friend, or the challenging situation or experience that has ultimately paved the way for personal growth and transformation in your life.  Gratitude for these people, things and experiences brings about a spacious ease and lightness of being.  It is the blossoming of Grace.  Make it a daily practice to express gratitude for the beings and  experiences to whom and for which you are grateful, and may you watch the fullness of your life unfold with luminosity.

You say grace before meals.  All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play, and the pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing, and grace before I dip the pen in the ink. 
G.K. Chesterton
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 turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events.  Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.  Melodie Beattie