Try pausing right before and right after undertaking a new action, even something simple like putting a key in a lock to open a door. Such pauses take a brief moment, yet they have the effect of decompressing time and centering you.
By looking up, by raising our eyes above our limited horizon, we are more likely to perceive the blessings hidden in affliction.
The greatest gift one can give is thanksgiving. In giving gifts, we give what we can spare, but in giving thanks we give ourselves.
Gratefulness is the great task, the how of our spiritual work, because, rightly understood, it re-roots us.
At any moment the fully present mind can shatter time and burst into Now.
The goal is partly the enjoyment; it doesn’t come later, but within the very process of the struggle.
In moments of surprise we catch at least a glimpse of the joy to which gratefulness opens the door.
Love is saying yes to belonging.
Wherever we may come alive, that is the area in which we are spiritual.
Gratefulness has the courage to trust and so overcomes fear.
Through people that I did know or through things that I did touch, I am connected with everything that ever was and everything that ever will be. Everything hangs together with everything.
The universe is gratis. It cannot be earned, nor need it be earned.
There’s opportunity upon opportunity to be grateful; that’s what life is.
The artist ought to know that a thousand painful deaths always lead into greater life.
Home and journey together constitute the creative polarity of the heart, the two dimensions we must cultivate if we want to ’develop the heart.
Gratefulness is the gallantry of a heart ready to rise to the opportunity a given moment offers.
Gratefulness is that fullness of life for which we are all thirsting.
Blessing is the lifeblood throbbing through the universe.
As we learn to give thanks for all of life and death, for all of this given world of ours, we find a deep joy. It is the joy of trust, the joy of faith in the faithfulness at the heart of all things. It is the joy of gratefulness in touch with the fullness of life.
A single crocus blossom ought to be enough to convince our heart that springtime, no matter how predictable, is somehow a gift, gratuitous, gratis, a grace.