Tonight is a good night for simple gratitude, appreciation for the simple, basic things in life that we often take for granted. As I look around my bedroom and think about my life as it exists in this moment, I am blessed beyond measure. Here in my warm, safe, comfortable little house I am surrounded by things that I love. I don’t have fine furniture or fancy decor: my house is furnished in an eclectic blend of what I call the “early poverty” collection. Not it is not fine, but it is relatively sturdy and functional. I actually used to be rather ashamed of my mismatched, run down furniture and embarrassed to have people over to my house. I still suffer a bit from this but try not to let it get me down. I am grateful to have a comfortable place to sit down, to park in front of my old fat screen (versus flat screen) television on the weekend and relax.
My house is old and small but it is warm, dry, and safe. And while I am far from being a gourmet cook, I rattle enough pots and pans in the kitchen to produce edible, largely nutritious food. Back in the days when times were much leaner, I didn’t always have a great assortment of fresh food, but I always had something to eat and never went hungry. I have a safe, reliable vehicle that carries me easily to my job. I am grateful for my wisdom in and ability to keep it well maintained as I depend upon it to carry me safely the 50-plus miles per day to work and back.
And I am grateful for work that challenges me and draws upon a wide variety of my skills and talents. I can remember being both unemployed and later underemployed, barely able to make ends meet, and only then with the assistance of family. I may have had my share of workplace challenges over the past few years, but having spent several months looking for a job, I am grateful to be working. My hope and prayer continues to be that the work I do make a difference in individual lives as well as in the over “life” of the organization. I am grateful for being able to contribute meaningfully to making the world a better place.
Finally, I am grateful for the written and spoken word. I am a reader and a writer. I enjoy powerful stories and the worlds that a good book takes me away to. I love different forms of expression through prose and poetry, fiction and nonfiction, song lyrics and all forms of writing. Words have the ability to convey so many thoughts, ideas, feelings, and concepts in powerful and life-affirming ways. I am grateful to have access to books and computers and all manner of tools that allow me to communicate effectively from person to person literally around the world.
Gratitude continues to be an important part of my daily life, a form of spiritual practice in which I engage on a constant, ongoing basis. At the end of the day, I have more things to be grateful for than I can adequately account for. It’s easy to be grateful for the big, obvious blessings, but it is when we find a heart of thanksgiving for the simple things that are part of our everyday experience, we are indeed truly grateful. May it continue to be so, now and in the time to come.
