Today I am mostly grateful for how the day unfolded. There really wasn’t anything at all extraordinary about the day; it followed the usual pattern of waking early, writing in my journal, morning ablutions, oatmeal for breakfast, then out the door to work. I continue to be grateful for the contract work I am doing: I have relatively steady income that’s been helping to keep us afloat. I am grateful for the work, though it is in an area in which I have no previous experience. The job requires me largely to do administrative support kinds of work on a variety of different projects, and while it doesn’t use much of my academic training and work experience, it is work I can do and I am grateful for it. Because it is contract work, there are slow times when I don’t work and therefore don’t get paid, so I am all the more grateful for days like this and work over the past few weeks when there’s been enough to keep me busy.
Today as I arrived at work I offered a dedication that everything I did–every effort I made at work, every interaction I had with people, everything I did over the course of the day at work and home–be done for the good of all beings. I would say I learned about this concept during my recent studies of Buddhism and mindfulness practice, but honestly I learned it as a child when I first learned the “Morning Offering” prayer–one in which you offer all your prayers, works, joys, and suffering of that day. There were a lot of other things involved in the prayer about salvation of souls and such that I no longer really attend to, but the basic idea has stuck with me all these decades later. Let the good that I do today, whatever that looks like–great or small–be somehow offered for the good of everyone; that if any good comes of it, we all benefit in some way. There’s a verse that says, “whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God.” There’s a theme here for me–it’s not about dogma or doctrine or religiosity. It’s about offering whatever I’m doing as a gift to better the world in some small way.
The notions of gratitude and generosity fit together. We are grateful for the blessings we’ve been given–the things that add richness and meaning to our lives. We give of ourselves, offer our gifts up to the world each day. We give out of our abundance and often we give out of our need. Sometimes the world gives us something in return, though this is not why we give. The gift is in the giving itself. I am grateful to have the capacity to give, to share something of my gifts and talents, and when I can, of my financial means. One of the deep disappointments about my tenuous, sometimes precarious financial situation has been that I have not been able to financially support charities and nonprofits whom I believe are doing such good work in the world. While I do still manage to support a few of them, it has been only a fraction of what I have been able to give in the past. This has been a discouraging, if only temporary situation. I look forward to being able to give again soon. But in the meantime, I have found other ways to contribute, to give of myself. I volunteer my time in service to others and I donate clothes and such things as I have to help the community. This is not about “See what a good person I am.” It’s about looking around and finding ways to offer gifts the world. And tonight, before I take my rest I will offer all the accomplishments I did manage in this day for the good of everyone. And, I will be grateful.
