Unearned Gifts
Thanks Backatcha - Essays about Grateful Living V
“We will be liberated from the captivity of craving for more only by an attitude of radical gratitude.” ~Mary Jo Leddy, Radical Gratitude, p. 40
Consider our language, as Robert Emmons suggests in The Little Book of Gratitude . Are we more likely to use language which shows an ongoing concern with our “burdens, curses, deprivations, and complaints” (p. 48)? Or are we more likely to use words like “gifts, givers, blessings, blessed, fortune, fortunate, and abundance”?
Which are you?
Starting each day with a few moments thinking about all the gifts we have been given sets the tone for grateful living. My favorite time of day is just as the sun rises and my favorite place is my back yard porch with a cup of coffee in hand. If I spend twenty minutes just listening and watching I pick out birds and squirrels talking with each other, trees rustling in morning breeze, and the smells of morning all around my neighborhood. If I take a few minutes then to write something in my gratitude journal I am never at a loss for something.
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Timeout: Usually I start the morning with a few minutes of writing and then go enjoy time for meditation – pure listening, receptivity time – thinking what I am particularly grateful for, and then reading something generative. That is, something that generates thought, reflection, adds to my store of knowledge, reminds me of what is most important.
So excuse me for a few minutes…it’s time to head outside…
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I am back. Thank you for your patience.
I will close this out by sharing some examples of what I write in my journal each day. They are very simple. Your own will reflect your own life story:
Monday: “I saw RBG (Ruth Bader Ginsberg) yesterday and was moved. Someone so quiet, serious, committed. I was choked up. What a treasure. Today is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
Last week: “The morning infuses me with its ‘thisness’. Its gifts surround me – I can’t get enough of it.”
Another day this week (quoting someone else, I think): “I am grateful there is a ‘delete’ function on Facebook.” I must have posted something impulsive earlier….eeyah….
5-21-18: “I love my little ‘accessories’ in the backyard – quail, squirrel, sun, pelikans (sic), a little fairy and more, to support St. Francis and the Buddha.”
There are never-ending opportunities to appreciate the gifts we have been given, unearned, in our lives. From the gift of life itself to the wind that blows to the smell of roses, these are ours in abundance. We take these for granted at our peril. As Leddy says:
“To dwell in the mystery of creation is to begin to understand that we should never take the earth for granted, should never take ourselves or any other person for granted. What is of such infinite inestimable value should never be disposed of lightly or allowed to waste away” (p. 57)
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
“Experience should teach us that we cannot earn or buy the most important things in life. We cannot manufacture love and friendship, we cannot buy affection.” ~Mary Jo Leddy, Radical Gratitude, p. 56
References:
Emmons, Robert A., The Little Book of Gratitude: Create a life of happiness and wellbeing by giving thanks , Octopus Books.
Leddy, Mary J., Radical Gratitude . Orbis Books.
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