Living Gratitude

Living Gratitude

by Linda Heron Wind, Ph.D.

Growing up, our family said grace before our Sunday dinner and on special occasions such as Thanksgiving or Christmas. We were also taught to say thank you when appropriate. Beyond that, it just seemed a given that my life was as it was. As I grew older and learned about people who lived differently than I did, at first I became angry about the apparent inequities. My dad took census for the school district in the summer and often I would ride with him. This gave me a chance to see some of the more extreme living situations, for example, a family of six migrant workers who lived in a room that was 8 by 10 feet. I was very idealistic and looked for ways to change the world in high school but by the time I reached college, I had decided that there was nothing I could do about the state of the world.

It has been a long road back to feeling that I have something to offer toward changing the world. What has changed my mind is the understanding that on some very real level, we are all one. I felt that each person was important early in my life, but at that time I had no way to understand the concept of unity. It first came as an intellectual understanding of being one with all things in the circle of life, and a sense of inter-dependence. It has since become a personal relationship with the trees, the wind, the rain, the animal and plants. It has become a way of experiencing things and people, and a way of being with them that gives the feeling of unity.

Gratitude is a feeling of connection with whatever or whoever you are grateful for. It is a communion that takes place in the One Heart. I wish we had better words in the English language to express the feelings that take place in our hearts but the best we can do is talk around them or tell stories about them. When I enter a state of gratitude, it would be like seeing a beautiful sunrise that you knew everyone else on Earth was seeing or witnessing the Northern Lights dancing in radiant color across the sky. There is no time or distance at that point between your heart and mine, or between the newborn fawn standing in the forest and me. When I look at the new-fallen snow on the trees outside my window or into your eyes, I smile at the illusion of separateness and am profoundly grateful that I can be present with its beauty.

I have discovered that the way to change the world is to be one with it and change it within myself. I can accept, appreciate and be grateful for each thing I experience as outside of me - even uncomfortable things - and then look inside and appreciate it there as well. When I can do this, I am living gratitude. Not just a prayer before dinner or during morning meditations, but a deep encounter with each moment of my life and all that is in it. Now I certainly don't mean to imply that I am doing this non-stop, because I have not achieved that level yet. But I am living gratitude more and more these days because when I am not, it no longer feels like living.

Psalms of gratitude
Each step each day is a prayer
Of deep thankfulness

If you have comments on these articles or ideas for future topics, call Linda Heron Wind at (585) 924-5620 or send e-mail to LHWind@aol.com.

Page last modified November 23, 2004 by RMC