Kirkepiscatoid

Today’s readings are about gratitude—that gratitude is not just being thankful, but that it also has action attached to it. She says, “To nourish a spirit of gratitude requires us to pay in kind what has been done for us.”

(Whew! Finally! A subject I can relax and talk about!)

Reflection questions:

1. Reflect on the ways you feel and express gratitude for your life.

For me, a lot of my gratitude is that God delivered me from a life so unlike most of my relatives. 95% of my family would have been in the “working poor” category. I have been able to have a better life because God endowed me with gifts like a certain amount of intelligence, a certain amount of stubbornness, and a compass that, most of the time, has not failed me in my quest to “move towards things that are good.” I am in a position to help and do for others more than any of my relatives ever could—but I also am grateful that certain relatives, like my grandfather, showed me the gift of giving all he had to other people, even though he only had modest finances.

I am grateful for the many years of true friends who have come in and out of my life and the unique gifts each of them has bestowed upon me.

I am grateful that even at this late age, I am desiring a better connection with God and can see the benefits of this, not just to me, but to those around me.

My life could have been WAY different. Sure, I’m not exactly happy all the time, but I could be WAY more unhappy about my life. I feel at times I have truly been “delivered” from what could very easily have become “my bondage.”

2. What would help you in your present relationships to further cultivate gratitude as a deepening state of consciousness?

I think learning to harness the flare-ups of anger that can pop up in my world would be a great help. I will always have a hot temper—I was hard wired that way and got too many life lessons early on that this was “acceptable”--and I don’t think I will ever be able to totally “control” it, but I can learn to harness that energy for good, and to be slower to flare up in anger. I find the better I fully understand a situation, or where everyone is coming from, I am less likely to flare up. Bewilderment and fear are the two biggest enemies for me in that. But the problem is an angry flare-up can quickly burn up any good work or good relationship I have with others and I need to harness that energy better.

3. List all the gifts you receive each day. Reflect on the many “givers” in your life. How can you remain mindful of the preciousness and giftedness of life?

I get unexpected gifts every day...smiles from people I didn’t expect, expressions of love and affection from those close to me, surprising positive feedbacks I hear in a “roundabout way”...Every month, I receive a decent paycheck, and have the pleasure (and pain) of owning my own business...and most of the time, I am aware of these gifts. What I realize, though, is when I get bound up in “my own shit”, it blinds me to the preciousness of these gifts. Part of what I need to cultivate is the ability to “let go” of the things that bind me more easily and quickly. When I can let go of those things, it allows my mind to be more open to subtle kindnesses and gifts of the spirit. I think if I could make one thing better in my life, it would be to learn to see things as they are, not just how they affect ME, and as a result of this, be able to let go of those delusions of self that bind my heart so it can’t give, and blind me to the tiny gifts of the spirit that add up to big ones.