giver of all good gifts

thanksgiving

On a superficial level, the giving of thanks is merely a social convention. Its forms vary greatly. In some societies the absence of all verbal expressions of thanks indicates not a lack of gratitude, but rather a deeper awareness of mutual belonging than our society has. To the people in question, an expression like “thank you” would seem as inappropriate as tipping family members would seem to us. The more we lose the sense of all of us belonging to one big family, the more we must explicitly express that belonging when it is actualized in some give-and-take. To give thanks means to give expression to mutual belonging. Genuine thanksgiving comes from the heart where we are rooted in universal belonging.

Wholehearted thanksgiving engages the whole person. The intellect recognizes a gift as gift. Thanksgiving presupposes thinking. The will, in its turn, acknowledges the interdependence of the giver and thanksgiver. And the emotions celebrate the joy of that mutual belonging. Only when intellect, will, and emotions join together does thanksgiving become genuine, that is, wholehearted.

-- Brother David Steindl-Rast

have you filled a bucket today?

Carol McCloud's book of same title is a guide to daily happiness for kids. It's a great book for teaching children how easy and rewarding it is to express kindness, appreciation, and love on a daily basis.

- read more

gratefulness for water

a quick exercise for being grateful for water

a good day

-- gratefulness.org

the secret - a movie

a movie about power of thought and gratitude. It talks about how with our patterns of thought we attract more negative or more positive situations in our lives. Courtesy of MrSikhNet.com.

acknowledgment

I dreamt that I went to Heaven and an angel was showing me around. We walked side-by-side inside a large workroom filled with angels.

My angel guide stopped in front of the first section and said, "This is the Receiving Section. Here, all petitions to God said in prayer are received." I looked around in this area, and it was terribly busy with so many angels sorting out petitions written on voluminous paper sheets and scraps from people all over the world. Then we moved on down a long corridor until we reached the second section. The angel then said to me, "This is the Packaging and Delivery Section. Here, the graces and blessings the people asked for are processed and delivered to the living persons who asked for them." I noticed again how busy it was there. There were many angels working hard at that station, since so many blessings had been requested and were
being packaged for delivery to Earth.

Finally at the farthest end of the long corridor we stopped at the door of a very small station. To my great surprise, only one angel was seated there, idly doing nothing. "This is the Aknowledgment Section," my angel friend quietly admitted to me. He seemed embarrassed "How is it that? There's no work going on here?" I asked. "So sad," the angel sighed. "After people receive the blessings that they asked for, very few send back acknowledgments.
"How does one acknowledge God's blessings?" I asked. "Simple," the angel answered. "Just say, "Thank you, Lord." "What blessings should they acknowledge?" I asked.

"If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of this world. "If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy. "And if you get this on your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity."
Also ..... "If you woke up this morning with more health than illness .... you are more blessed than the many who will not even survive this day.

"If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation .. you are ahead of 700 million people in the world. "If you can attend a church meeting without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death you are envied by, and more blessed than, three billion people in the world. "If your parents are still alive and still married .. you are very rare. If you can hold your head up and smile, you are not the norm, you're unique to all those in doubt and despair."

Ok, what now? How can I start? If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you as very special and you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.

-- from a forwarded email message

I'm thankful ...

I'm thankful for ...

For my shadow that watches me work
because it means
I am out in the sunshine

For a lawn that needs mowing,
windows that need cleaning,
and gutters that need fixing
because it means I have a home.

For all the complaining
I hear about the government
because it means
we have freedom of speech..

For the parking spot
I find at the far end of the parking lot
because it means I am capable of walking
and I have been blessed with transportation.

For my huge heating bill
because it means
I am warm.

For the lady behind me in church
who sings off key because it means
I can hear.

For the pile of laundry and ironing
because it means
I have clothes to wear.

For weariness and aching muscles
at the end of the day
because it means I have been
capable of working hard.

For the alarm that goes off
in the early morning hours
because it means I am alive.

-- from a forwarded email

Gratitude

If you can just appreciate each thing, one by one, then you will have pure gratitude.
Even though you observe just one flower, that one flower includes everything.

- Shunryu Suzuki RoshiBranching Streams Flowing in the Dark
from http://www.gratefulness.org/word/index.htm

Come from Gratitude

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day in US. Here's a message of hope and gratitude.
Come from Gratitude, guidelines by Joanna Macy

Selflessness

"Learn to be thankful to everyone, to the entire creation, even to your enemy, and to those who insult you and get angry with you, because they all help you to grow. They are mirrors, images of your own mind. If you know how to read and interpret the images properly, you can get rid of your mind and its weaknesses.”
-Amma - http://www.ammamich.org