Monday Morning

Today I am grateful for the feeling of gratitude.

I don't remember how or even when it started, but for many years I have been approaching gratitude as a sort of meditative practice.  At some point, I became aware that when I think about God, or Spirit, or a 'Supreme Being', what I feel more than any thing else is grateful.  It was at that time that I took the pseudonym 'Gratefulknits'.  It came from a screen-name generating progam on Yahoo or Google that asked "how would you describe yourself?" and "what do you like to do?"  The answers 'grateful' and 'to knit' were instantaneous. 

Of course I'm aware, as is any feeling person, of how much suffering there is in the world, how much needless pain and destruction humans inflict on each other and on the Earth.  I see those things and the grief is a physical hurt in my chest.  It would be so easy to take refuge in an attitude I often hear: "people suck" or "life is painful".  And I'm guilty of doing it, oftener than I'd like to admit.

But all I need to do is take even a second to contemplate the Earth, the immensity of Creation, and then I can only feel gratitude.  Feeling gratitude is much like feeling love: it benefits the one experiencing it, so much more than it benefits its intended recipient.  I am enlarged when I am grateful; I become more than I was, I receive more than I ever had to offer.  I am both humbled and uplifted and can scarcely utter the words 'thank you' as I recognize the hand of God in that which lies before me. 

And so I am grateful.

Thank you, God, for the gift of gratitude.