Growing Gratitude – Part II

Here is a continuation for yesterday’s post!

* Regard all things, all events, all living beings with gratefulness. Take, for example a pencil, a dish, anything, and hold it before you in both hands. Regard it for a while. Forgetting its use and name, continue to regard it with appreciation. Ask yourself seriously, “What is it really?” Joseph Campbell writes that when you do this, “Its dimension of wonder opens; for the mystery of the being of that being is identical with the mystery of the being of the universe – and yourself.”

* Gratitude paid to all around us becomes a spiritual exercise. Daily, show your gratitude to the music that enchants you, to your shoes that protect your feet form the wear and tear of the elements of the earth, to the movie that brings tears to your eyes and joy to your heart, to the warmth of the sun upon which all life depends.

Finally, strengthen your gratitude for the relationships you have with everyone around you. Appreciate how people have touched your life, however briefly. The value of personal relationships to other living beings creates intimacy. Intimacy creates understanding. Understanding creates love. And love after all, is that for which we need to be most grateful. Take your life for grateful, not for granted, and you may indeed find joy in your being alive.

Be Well.