From Brother David:

You think this is just another day in your life. It’s not just another day; it’s the one day that is given to you today. It’s given to you. It’s a gift. It’s the only gift that you have right now, and the only appropriate response is gratefulness. If you do nothing else but to cultivate that response to the great gift that this unique day is, if you learn to respond as if it were the first day of your life, and the very last day, then you will have spent this day very well.

Begin by opening your eyes and be surprised that you have eyes you can open, that incredible array of colors that is constantly offered to us for pure enjoyment. Look at the sky. We so rarely look at the sky. We so rarely note how different it is from moment to moment with clouds coming and going. We just think of the weather, and even of the weather we don’t think of all the many nuances of weather. We just think of good weather and bad weather. This day right now has unique weather, maybe a kind that will never exactly in that form come again. The formation of clouds in the sky will never be the same that it is right now. Open your eyes. Look at that.

Look at the faces of people that you meet. Each one has an incredible story behind their face, a story that you could never fully fathom, not only their own story, but the story of their ancestors. We all go back so far. And in this present moment on this day all the people you meet, all that life from generations and from so many places all over the world, flows together and meets you here like a life-giving water, if you only open your heart and drink.

Open your heart to the incredible gifts that civilization gives to us. You flip a switch and there is electric light. You turn a faucet and there is warm water and cold water — and drinkable water. It’s a gift that millions and millions in the world will never experience.

So these are just a few of an enormous number of gifts to which you can open your heart. And so I wish for you that you would open your heart to all these blessings and let them flow through you, that everyone whom you will meet on this day will be blessed by you; just by your eyes, by your smile, by your touch — just by your presence. Let the gratefulness overflow into blessing all around you, and then it will really be a good day.

Published on Nov 26, 2013 (suggested by Jim Freeberg)

From Gretchen Sleicher’s “Songs for The Great Turning” web site.

Gratitude is the ground we start from and come back to. It is a touchstone that is always available to support us, even in grief. Joining our voices in praise and appreciation of life on Earth adds a unique human beauty that the world needs us to contribute.

Gratitude as a Revolutionary Work from Work That Reconnects on Vimeo.

From the Work That Reconnects Training DVD with Joanna Macy.
Recorded at a 2005 Intensive and 2006 Palo Alto Workshop.   


 

Recommended by Dennis Rivers

Gratefulness, The Heart of Prayer
An Approach to Life in Fullness

Brother David Steindl-Rast

Brother David Steindl-Rast explores the many meanings and benefits of the spiritual practice of gratitude. Here is an excerpt that explains the link between joy and gratefulness.

“Ordinary happiness depends on happenstance. Joy is that extraordinary happiness that is independent of what happens to us. Good luck can make us happy, but it cannot give us lasting joy. The root of joy is gratefulness. We tend to misunderstand the link between joy and gratefulness. We notice that joyful people are grateful and suppose that they are grateful for their joy. But the reverse is true: their joy springs from gratefulness. If one has all the good luck in the world, but takes it for granted, it will not give one joy. Yet even bad luck will give joy to those who manage to be grateful for it. We hold the key to lasting happiness in our own hands. For it is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.”

Look for this book in your local library, order from your local bookstore (ISBN=9780809126286), or click the button below to see online bookstore links.

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was ‘Thank you,’  
that would be enough. ~ Meister Eckhart (1260-1328) 

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought,   
and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.   
~ Gilbert Keith Chesterton