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The Wisdom of Being Grateful — 12 Short Reminders
medium.com/perennial/the-wisdom-of-being-grateful-12-short-reminders-8451289213a
The wisdom (or practice) of being grateful appears across wisdom traditions. Although philosophical or spiritual traditions often speak of gratitude in slightly different ways than we do in modern culture.
“You think this is just another day in your life. It’s not just another day; it’s the one day. It’s the one day that is given to you today. It’s a gift. It’s the only gift you have right now — and the only appropriate response is gratefulness.”
— Brother David Steindl-Rast.
Nelson (author of Wakeup Grateful) uncovered the difference between gratitude and being grateful. Nelson explained gratefulness is gratitude for life. It reminds us that we are continually receiving in simply being alive. While gratitude — as we know it — needs something good to happen, gratefulness only requires us to be awake. We do not need to do anything to feel grateful or wait for anything more.
How might your life change if you started to take nothing for granted?
12 Short Reminders
“Gratitude not only the greatest of all virtues but the parent of all others.” — Cicero
“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices
for those which he has.” — Epictetus
“I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my old and new friends.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us
as well.” — Voltaire
“In ordinary life, we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give
and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.” — Deitrich Bonhoeffer
“Wear gratitude as a cloak, and it will feed every corner of your life.” — Rumi
“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy, they are the charming
gardeners who make our souls blossom.” — Marcel Proust
“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you
now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” — Epicurus
“If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough.” — Meister
Eckhart
“I was complaining that I had no shoes till I met a man who had no feet.” —
Confucius
“Only to live, to live and live! Life, whatever it may be!” — Dostoevsky
Gratitude to Grateful
The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche called his approach to life Amor Fati. Nietzsche explained,
My formula for greatness in a human being is Amor Fati: that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it... but love it.
Nietzsche’s approach doesn’t attempt to erase the past but instead accepts what has occurred, the good and the bad, the mistaken and the wise, resulting in all-embracing gratitude.
Likewise, Nelson explains that gratefulness enables us to notice the things we often overlook and take for granted. The traditional gratitude practice scans our days to look for a few things to feel gratitude. Gratefulness works from the inside out — taking nothing for granted. It is about knowing in your bones that each day and moment is precious.
Final Thoughts
The path to becoming wiser or learning how to live generally has more to do with being grateful for life (despite the everyday challenges) than we realize. But similar to becoming wiser — no one ever became grateful merely by chance.
Nouwen observed,
“I always thought of gratitude as a spontaneous response to the awareness of gifts received, but now I realize that gratitude can also be lived as a discipline.”
Being grateful is a habit — just like any other virtue, it must be cultivated again and again.
Each moment of our lives provides another opportunity to practice being grateful.
To quote the American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson,
“Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.”