On June 30, 2011 I wrote the first post of Lessons in Gratitude. It was an experiment, and I had no idea at the time that it was going to take me where it did. For over two years and some 900 days I participated in the experiment, writing every day, even when (and perhaps especially when) I didn’t feel like it. I formally closed out this blog on December 31, 2013 after having written over 700 straight days (after a brief hiatus in February 2012). In the end it wasn’t really about records or writing every day, it was in large part about finding a positive focus on which to end each day, concentrating on at least one thing I was grateful for.
I have missed writing every day, though I haven’t missed the pressure I sometimes experienced, feeling the need to have something profound to say every day and trying to say it eloquently. Sometimes I could barely put together a coherent thought, but sometimes it didn’t need to be eloquent to express sincere gratitude for the simplest of things. German theologian Meister Eckhart said, “If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is ‘thank you,’ it will be enough.” When you put it that way, I don’t reckon I need to be particularly articulate to put those two words together in simple gratitude for the countless blessings in my life. I say “Thank you,” aloud or in murmured prayer or in my head a dozen times a day, even on those days when I am struggling. It has been gratitude that kept me going when I thought perhaps I might simply give up.
There’s a line in the song Amazing Grace, that says, “Through many dangers, toils, and snares I have already come. ‘Twas grace that brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home.” I’m a big fan of grace and perhaps it was grace that brought me to a place of seeking gratitude in the midst of struggle. It’s a chicken or the egg kind of conversation: I don’t spend time thinking about whether it was grace that brought me to a place of gratitude or if it was seeking gratitude that brought me into s state of grace. It really doesn’t matter one way or another. In the end I am made richer for the presence of both elements in my life, and I take neither for granted.
Three years ago yesterday I embarked upon an epic journey of gratitude. It was born out of hardship and struggle and no small amount of confusion and a desperate need to make sense of a life that had hit some significant speed bumps. But make sense of it I did, viewing the world and my life in it through the lens of gratitude. Here with some faithful readers I meandered my way through various life lessons writing and putting them out here for the world (if they managed to find it) to see. And while my reach was relatively small, I do know that others in this small circle came along with me and benefited from the lessons I chronicled here. For that I am especially grateful.
I do not know if I’ll write again tomorrow or what I will do next. I wanted to mark the occasion of the third anniversary of my first lesson in gratitude back in 2011 and to say that I remain faithful in a daily gratitude practice. Tonight I remain grateful for simple things: the love of family and friends (including my canine sidekick), the basic necessities of food, clothing, and safe shelter, to have full and relatively easy use of my body, the ability to recognize the beauty that is present all around me in each moment, and so many other things. A beautiful sunrise, the call of the mourning dove, the bright flash or red as a cardinal flies by, a bowl of cherries in summertime, a cool breeze on a hot day. It really is all around me, and I am truly grateful.
