In a year like no other, we still give thanks. Even in the midst of pain and fear most of us can find something to be grateful for.
Maybe it’s the fact that we are healthy, that we are secure. Maybe, if we are sick, it is the fact that we have been able to draw this breath. And then this one.
Whatever it is, gratitude, as David Whyte says “is not a passive response to something we have been given, gratitude arises from paying attention, from being awake in the presence of everything that lives within and without us.”
And it is true. Even for those of us who do not formally pray, gratitude is a kind of prayer, a way of being in the world and understanding that we can usually find something to be grateful for.
We can also create moments of gratitude. Deciding to stop for a moment and make yourself a healing cup of tea, you can be grateful for the water that flows from the faucet into your kettle. You can be thankful for the fuel or energy that warms the water and thankful for the tea blend, the leaves swirling as you pour the water into a favorite cup. You can be grateful for the aroma of the tea and the sweet steam that comes up. Each moment a blessing.
Understanding how many hands it takes to bring food to your table is another way to bring gratitude to your daily life. During the pandemic, our interconnectedness and dependence on a whole network of growers, pickers, packers, drivers, grocers came to a very real light. That labor to bring us our food has always been there but for many of us it just seemed the natural order of things — that we could pop into the store and grab a few things for dinner. Even if we understood on some level that the food doesn’t magically appear on the shelves, or that others may not be food secure as we are, we certainly took a lot for granted.
Not any more.
In many ways, the terror of the pandemic has brought us beautiful understanding as well — that we are (most of us) not at all self-sufficient, that we depend on so many others to have food and basic necessities. Maybe we learned that some of those “basics” aren’t quite as necessary as we imagined.
Being alive, being part of this beautiful mess we call life, is a tremendous privilege.
Let us give thanks.
Join us on Sundays for Meditation and Calming Yoga: https://www.yourawakenedheart.com/sunday-meditation-yoga-class/sunday-meditation-amp-yoga-class-1