THE GRACE OF GRATITUDE

I am wondering… do you feel as I do, a bit reluctant to be joyfully grateful this Thanksgiving?

I have many blessings–for which I am very thankful–but I am also concerned about those who are enduring terrible circumstances; the immense grief and loss from wars, disasters, and other tragedies; the painful awareness of our nation’s broken and often hateful history; some family concerns and sadnesses. I have been feeling as if I would be short-sighted and selfish to celebrate my blessings while others are lacking… my contentment when others are suffering… my joy when others are grieving.

Then a few days ago, I read this article from Greater Good and was reminded that gratitude has several aspects–and I had been neglecting the full significance of gratitude:

Robert Emmons, perhaps the world’s leading scientific expert on gratitude, argues that gratitude has two key components, which he describes in a Greater Good essay, “Why Gratitude Is Good.”
“First,” he writes, “it’s an affirmation of goodness. We affirm that there are good things in the world, gifts and benefits we’ve received.”
In the second part of gratitude, he explains, “we recognize that the sources of this goodness are outside of ourselves. … We acknowledge that other people—or even higher powers, if you’re of a spiritual mindset—gave us many gifts, big and small, to help us achieve the goodness in our lives.”
Emmons and other researchers see the social dimension as being especially important to gratitude. “I see it as a relationship-strengthening emotion,“ writes Emmons, “because it requires us to see how we’ve been supported and affirmed by other people.”
Because gratitude encourages us not only to appreciate gifts but to repay them (or pay them forward), the sociologist Georg Simmel called it “the moral memory of mankind.” This is how gratitude may have evolved: by strengthening bonds between members of the same species who mutually helped each other out.¹

This Thanksgiving, may I be mindful of each aspect of gratitude as I thank God for every goodness in my life. May I be:

Joyfully grateful
for these bonus days of living,
for my precious family and friends,
for my home and all good gifts,
for the beauty of creation,
for the love of God.

Humbly grateful
for all good gifts, unmerited, undeserved, given by grace alone,
for dear ones who have freely loved and encouraged me,
for helpful servants who have taught, healed, mentored, or inspired,
for all who work for the betterment of the world.

Generously grateful
for every gift I can share with others,
for a spirit of kindness and compassion,
for each caring community in the world,
for the wisdom to steward all of creation.

Tearfully grateful
for the friends and mentors who have gone before,
for our laughter, love, and life together,
for the beautiful promise of eternity.

Hopefully grateful
for the assurance that God is always present, always loving,
for the goodness that awaits, remains, and overcomes,
for the guidance to make the world a little better,
and for the dawning of each new day.

¹https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/topic/gratitude/definition
(Photo by Karen)