I am currently enjoying Grateful: The Transformative Power of Giving Thanks by Diana Butler Bass.
Let me share the below paragraph from this wonderful book.
“Life is the first gift,” said poet Marge Piercy, “love is the second, and understanding the third.” The first gift is life. My life. Your life. There exists a unique beauty and dignity at the core of each one of us, the quality that animates every human being and that Jews and Christians call “the image of God.” That is the gift. No other gift is possible without it. Nothing we ever receive or have can rival it. Gratitude is not about stuff. Gratitude is the emotional response to the surprise of our very existence, to sensing that inner light and realizing the astonishing sacred, social, and scientific events that brought each one of us into being. We cry out like the psalmist, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made!” (Ps. 139: 14). When we push aside the immediate anxieties of that existence, we can actually see more clearly that to feel fear, doubt, or anger at all is part of the gift of life itself. Without life, even the negative emotions are impossible. Everything else is dependent on that one thing. All we experience is radically contingent on a single gift—life.”
Gratitude is deep. It is at the core of who we are. We are made in the image of God! My being and the Great Creator sit quietly together during my centering prayer time. My little image sits within the Larger Image: we become one. My being rests in the Larger Being. My life connects to Life.
I arise from my silent sits filled with an energy and an excitement for life. I arise from my sits confident that God and I will partner to take on today’s tasks. I arise from my sits fitted with a new pair of eyes and ears and with an openness to the Inner Nudges that God wishes for me to explore.
I seem to hear and see new things that previously I did not notice: a slightly different color leaf on a tree, a gentle breeze moving the tree branches, the beautiful white clouds in the sky, the billions of stars that light up the night sky.
I am now able to slow down, watch and listen without a need to take an immediate action. Sometimes no action is the best action. God simply wishes that I enjoy what is right in front of me just now. I have learned to be grateful for life and its sounds, sights, aromas and textures.
All of my outer actions, thoughts and emotions are birthed from these powerful silent sits. These silent sits help me better appreciate the gift of life that I have been gifted. My silent sits teach me how to be grateful and will continue to fill me with Gratitude!
“Gratitude is not about stuff. Gratitude is the emotional response to the surprise of our very existence, to sensing that inner light and realizing the astonishing sacred, social, and scientific events that brought each one of us into being.”
My silent sits have taught me that life is the first gift! My silent sits will continue to teach me that life is the first gift.
Go Further:
Grateful: The Transformative Power of Giving Thanks by Diana Butler Bass (Listen to this book for Free when you try Audible with a 30-day free trial.)
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Soulful Aging by Thomas Moore: As everyone knows, we are growing older all the time. But growing older is not the same as aging. Many people seem to grow older without going through the challenging life processes that make you a real person of substance and character. That kind of aging requires saying yes to the opportunities and difficult issues that life presents.
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Poetry and Prayer from the Celtic Tradition by Carl McColman: The traditional Celtic people of Scotland, Ireland, and Wales wove prayers, blessings, poems, and songs into every aspect of their daily lives — using the power of language to blend a rich spirituality of presence and wisdom into the very fabric of their being. Many of these poetic invocations and charming poems were collected by folklorist Alexander Carmichael over 100 years ago and preserved in the book Carmina Gadelica — the “Charms of the Gaels.”
