Practicing Gratitude

"Gratitude for the gift of life is the primary wellspring of all religions, the hallmark of the mystic, the source of all true art....It is a privilege to be alive in this time when we can choose to take part in the self-healing of our world."
----Joanna Macy

I found myself thinking about gratitude this morning, and then came across this quote. Suddenly, I had a different way to look at our Climate Crisis---perhaps I am living now because I am the type of human which will put great effort into changing our culture and healing the planet? I know that I feel gratitude on a dialy basis for a lovley home to live in ( and all paid for) and my fairly good health (with some arthritis), and my family and friends. And when I was kayaking in the wilderness of Alaska, I felt gratitude that we have such magical wilderness in our country, and grateful for the ability to visit and camp there.

I find it easy to go about my daily life--with all the tasks I must do to keep our household running smoothly, and I forget to be grateful. In fact, somedays I start to think that I don't have enough!--you know--that old advertising mantra: not enough time, enough money, enough sleep or whatever...our culture bombards us daily with messages which tell us we don't have enough. I find I must make a real effort to not fall into that type of thinking. In reality, I know I have too much--too much stuff, and enough time---so practicing gratefullness for all I do have is a daily necessity, lest I begin to feel deprived (like the advertising world wants me--and all of us to feel--deprived, so we will buy more), and then unhappy. Ah! happiness--that is a whole other topic....I will just leave it at that: practicing gratefullness each day keeps me happy, how about you ?