With Gratitude for Gratitude

If I could give you one gift to start this year off, I would give you the gift of Gratitude. Perhaps Rumi, the 13^th Century poet/mystic, said it best:

“Wear gratitude like a cloak and it will feed every corner of your life.”

Gratitude starts small but grows and expands and definitely feeds every corner of our life.  If you’re not sure where to begin, start with something small: I’m grateful for my eyelashes – or something big: I’m grateful for my heart.  Have you ever told your heart how grateful you are that it’s kept its beat throughout all the days of your life?  Rumi also said:

“If you only say one prayer in a day, make it ‘Thank you.’”

Gratitude warms your heart and your heart appreciates your Gratitude.  If you say a prayer of thank you to every cell in your being, you will heal each one of those cells; watch how much better you feel.

Gratitude brings the answer to many questions and has many by-products.  When you feel Gratitude for something, it makes that something even better and worth even more to your life.  Gratitude completes and rounds out and puts the frosting on the cake – and it just keeps multiplying.

It seems like we would have to be in a really good place in order to feel Gratitude; however, when you don’t know where to turn, express Gratitude first – even if for just being grateful that you are in the situation you are in.  It will provide the door that opens to help you see a new avenue; a light will shine.  It is transformative.

I love this quote from Brother David Steindl-Rast, a Benedictine Monk:

“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful

but gratitude that makes us happy.”

Lastly, I will share a few words from Robert Schwartz, author of Courageous Souls (2007):

“The importance of gratitude cannot be overstated.  Two tuning forks of similar frequency will strike a sympathetic resonance; that is, they will vibrate in unison.  Gratitude is an elevated, even sacred vibration, on a par with love, forgiveness, joy and compassion.”

May this New Year be filled with Gratitude!