November 27
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Today's
quotation:
To live a life of gratitude
is to open our eyes to the
countless ways in which we are supported by
the world
around us. Such a life provides less space
for our
suffering because our attention is more
balanced. We are more often occupied with noticing
what we are
given, thanking those who have helped us, and
repaying
the world in some concrete way for what we are
receiving.
Gregg Krech
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Today's
Meditation:
This
world with its resources and the people in it who make use
of those resources really does a marvelous job in
providing for us. We as a species really do want for
nothing, in spite of the fact that our appetites and
desires grow broader constantly. We have everything
we need to live full and fulfilling and healthy lives here
on this planet that gives us everything we need to do so,
in "countless ways."
Only
when we realize the depth and number of the many gifts
that we get from the world around us can we begin to
appreciate those gifts in a real way. The trees give
us oxygen to breathe and lumber with which we build.
Water helps us to live and keeps the trees alive.
Animals provide us with food and labor and clothing and
companionship. Beauty is everywhere, from the
magnificence of mountain views to the songs of the
birds. Materials that we take from the ground build
our houses and are used for cars and other goods.
Animals that died thousands of years ago provide us with
fuels to keep us warm and keep us moving. The list
is pretty much endless.
With
all that said, just how grateful are we to the
earth? Just how often do we stop and say "thank
you" to this planet for all that it provides for
us? If we view it as an inanimate object, of course,
we may say that we can't really thank an object. But
are we really in tune with exactly what the earth is,
especially if we don't even keep ourselves aware of all
that it does for us, all that it gives to us?
Gratitude
that we feel for the earth may not affect the earth at
all, but it sure can be beneficial to us as we keep in
mind all the wonderful blessings that this planet gives to
us on a regular basis.
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Questions to
consider:
When was the last time you felt gratitude for this
planet?
Why do so many people have a hard time with the idea of
expressing gratitude to an "inanimate object"?
How can feeling gratitude for this planet help make our
lives richer? |
For further
thought:
If the Earth
does grow inhospitable
toward human presence,
it is primarily
because we have lost our sense of
courtesy
toward the Earth and its
inhabitants, our sense of gratitude,
our willingness to recognize the
sacred character of habitat,
our
capacity for the awesome, for
the numinous quality
of
every earthly reality.
Thomas Berry
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