|
gratitude
- gratitude
3
|
|
Feeling gratitude and not
expressing it is
like
wrapping
a present and not giving it.
William Arthur Ward |
|
|
|
(Some people) have a
wonderful capacity to appreciate again
and again,
freshly
and naively, the basic goods of life,
with awe, pleasure,
wonder, and even ecstasy.
A.H. Maslow
|
|
| |
Most religion is based on
gratitude. Our feelings of
thankfulness for all
that we have and the opportunity
to live on this beautiful planet are a
driving force in
our lives, and our lives become something less when
we start to take things for granted and not feel thankful
any longer. We lose the ability to see and recognize
beauty when we're not thankful
for it, and we lose
the ability to enjoy music when we don't feel
gratitude for the fact that it exists.
tom walsh
|
| |
|
I remember those happy days and
often wish I could speak into
the ears of the dead the
gratitude which was due to them
in life and so ill-returned.
Gwyn Thomas
|
| |
You
say grace before meals.
All right.
But I say grace before the concert
and the opera, and grace before the play and the pantomime, and grace
before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming,
fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing, and grace
before I dip the pen in the ink.
G. K. Chesterton
I'm
grateful for the opportunity to live on this beautiful
and astonishing
planet Earth. In the morning,
I
wake up with a sense of gratitude.
Earl
Nightingale
|
|
| |
|
Can
you see the holiness in those things you take for granted--
a
paved road or a washing machine? If you concentrate
on finding
what is good in every situation, you will
discover that your life
will suddenly be filled with
gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul.
Harold Kushner
|
| |
|
|
|
quotations
- contents
-
welcome
page
-
obstacles
the
people behind the words
-
our
current e-zine
-
articles
and excerpts
Daily
Meditations, Year One - Year
Two - Year Three
- Year Four
Sign up
for your free daily spiritual or general quotation ~ ~ Sign
up for your free daily meditation
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Gratitude is the
highest form of acceptance. Like patience, it is one of
the catalytic agents, one of the alchemist's secrets for turning dross
to
gold, hell to heaven, death to life. Where there is gratitude we
get the
teaching. Where there is resistance we discover only that it keeps
us
painfully ignorant. Of course, if we had enough acceptance to
explore
our nonacceptance, if we learned nothing but that resistance
amplified our suffering, we would be eternally grateful.
Stephen Levine
A
Year to Live
|
| |
Gratitude
is one of those things that cannot
be bought. It
must be born with people, or
else all the obligations in the
world
will not
create it. A real sense of a kind
thing is a
gift
of nature,
and never was, nor can be,
acquired.
Lord
Halifax
|
| |
|
The
finest test of character is
seen in the
amount
and power
of gratitude we have.
Milo H. Gates
|
| |
|
Gratitude
makes sense of our past, brings peace
for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.
Melody Beattie
|
| |
If you can't be
thankful for what you receive,
be thankful for what you
escape.
unattributed |
|
|
|
We can be thankful to a friend for a
few acres or a little money;
and yet for the freedom and
command of the whole earth,
and for the great benefits of
our being, our life, health,
and reason, we look upon
ourselves as under no obligation.
Marcus Annaeus Seneca |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Take
full account of the excellencies which you possess, and
in gratitude
remember how you would hanker after them, if
you had them not.
Marcus Aurelius
|
|
gratitude - gratitude
3
|
Not what we say about
our blessings,
but how we use
them, is the true measure
of our thanksgiving.
W.T. Purkiser |
|
|
|
One can take
one's life and its advantages for granted, but
how much better it is to acknowledge not only those
advantages but one's gratitude for them.
Robert Solomon |
|
|
|
Gratitude is a reflection of the right brain.
To be clear, being grateful goes
beyond simple acceptance of reality into the realm of being thankful for it.
For instance, if the right brain could speak, rather than saying “I accept the
fact that it is raining,” it might say, “I am so glad that it is raining.”
Research
has determined there is greater activity in the right brain when subjects
experienced the sensations of gratitude, and another study found that
subjects who were more grateful actually had more gray matter
in certain parts of the right brain.
Chris Niebauer
No Self, No Problem |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
There is
something quite powerful and life-giving in the act of giving
thanks. It is a lot like recharging a battery. As you open
your mind
and let your heart sing for joy, you can receive a recharging of
spiritual energy in your mind, body, spirit, and activities of your
daily
life. There is no greater tonic and perhaps no more potent tonic
for
our spirit than gratitude. When we are grateful for the blessings
we
already have, our very attitude of gratitude attracts extra good to
us. Thanksgiving is like a powerful magnet that can draw us
to friends, love, peace, joy, health, and material good.
John Marks
Templeton
Worldwide
Laws of Life
|
|
|
|
Gratitude
is a duty which ought
to be paid,
but which none
have a right to
expect.
Jean-Jacques
Rousseau
|
|
|
|
Those
who receive a benefit
with gratitude repay the first
installment
on their debt.
Lucius
Annaeus Seneca
|
|
|
|
There is no quality I would
rather have, and be thought to have,
than gratitude. For it is not
only the greatest virtue,
but is the mother of all the rest.
Marcus Tillius Cicero
|
|
|
|
When
something does not insist on being noticed,
when we aren't grabbed by the collar or struck on the skull
by a presence or an event, we take for granted
the very
things that most deserve our gratitude.
Cynthia
Ozick
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The more I focused on lack and on what I
couldn’t have, the more depressed I became.
The more depressed I became, the more I focused on lack.
My soul whispered that what I really yearned for was not
financial security but financial serenity.
I was still—quiet enough to listen.
At that moment I acknowledged the deep longing in my
heart. What I
hungered for was an inner peace that the world could not take
away. I asked for
help and committed to following wheresoever Spirit would lead
me. For the first
time in my life I discarded my five-year goals and became a
seeker, a pilgrim, a sojourner.
When
I surrendered my desire for security and sought serenity
instead, I looked at my life with open eyes.
I saw that I had much for which to be grateful.
I felt humbled by my riches and regretted that I took for
granted the abundance that already existed in my life.
How could I expect more from the universe when I didn’t
appreciate what I already had?
Sarah Ban Breathnach
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Be
grateful for yourself. . .
be thankful.
William Saroyan
|
|
|
|
Seeds of discouragement will not grow
in the thankful heart.
unattributed
|
|
|
|
Whatever
our individual troubles and challenges may be,
it’s important
to pause every now and then to appreciate
all that we have, on every
level. We
need to literally
“count our blessings,” give thanks for them,
allow ourselves
to enjoy them, and relish the
experience of prosperity we already have.
Shakti Gawain
|
|
|
|
Be
grateful simply for being alive.
When you are grateful for life,
pure and simple, your life becomes one you can be grateful for.
That
may strike you as circular or even backward logic, but your
attitude
really does have an effect on how things work out.
When you can’t
change your life any other way, you can still
change your attitude. When you do, your life changes.
You find
more chances to love,
and you will be surprised to see how much
more love is returned to you.
The next time someone says, “It’s a lovely day,” try
saying,
“Yes, it is.”
Today is always the best day of your life.
Bernie Siegel
|
|
|
|
Gratitude is the heart of our religion.
We pray on rising in the morning
for a new day, for the beauty of the gift of life.
We have regular
prayer meetings, sweat lodges— we call them the little
brother— and
Sun Dances, the big brother.
The whole adds up to a
cycle of praise.
What else
should human beings be if not praising beings?
Tom Yellow Tail
|
|
|
|
Gratefulness
brings joy to my life. How
could I feel joy in what
I take for granted? So I
stop taking for granted, and there is not end
to the surprises I find. A
grateful attitude is a creative one, because,
in the final analysis, opportunity is the gift within the gift of every
moment--
the opportunity to see and hear and smell and touch and taste with
pleasure.
David
Steindl-Rast
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
We
have some
inspiring and motivational books that may interest you. Our main way of supporting this site is
through the sale of books, either physical copies
or digital copies for your Amazon Kindle (including the
online reader). All of the money that we earn
through them comes back to the site
in one way or another. Just click on the picture
to the left to visit our page of books, both fiction and
non-fiction! |
|
|
gratitude - gratitude
3
|
In
my work, when I am able to make a difference to someone,
catch a glimpse
of a person's soul, or hear a dream and
sense how profound the human psyche
is, I feel privileged
to be in this moment. And when I narrowly escape
being in
an accident or have some sense of a close call, I
literally and physically appreciate
being alive and
unharmed in this moment. When I feel this
gratitude-for-being,
it is like singing a thank-you and
hearing a response in which divinity is present.
Jean Shinoda Bolen
"Grace,
Gratitude, and the Sacred Experience"
|
|
|
|
Life without
thankfulness is devoid of love and passion. Hope without
thankfulness is lacking in fine perception. Faith without
thankfulness
lacks strength and fortitude. Every virtue
divorced from thankfulness
is maimed
and limps along the
spiritual road.
John Henry Jowett
|
|
|
|
Gratitude, where it is hardly
manifest in a gesture or smile, is thus
something like a secret restitution, a restoration--a spiritual
present given in return.
Gabriel Marcel
Gratitude is not something monetary; it is sustained, it is enduring.
At its foundation it is "remembering" and not a mere
conservation:
it must be regarded as a "wakefulness, as a watchfulness of the
soul."
|
|
|
Developing a true sense of
gratitude involves taking absolutely
nothing for granted, wherever it be, whatever its source. Rather,
we always look for the friendly intention behind the deed and learn
to appreciate it. Make a point of measuring at its true value
every
act of kindness you receive from other people. Nothing that may
happen to you is purely accidental. Everything can be traced back
to a will for good directed in your favor.
Albert Schweitzer
|
|
|
|
|
|
quotations
- contents
-
welcome
page
-
obstacles
the
people behind the words
-
our
current e-zine
-
articles
and excerpts
Daily
Meditations, Year One - Year
Two - Year Three
- Year Four
Sign up
for your free daily spiritual or general quotation ~ ~ Sign
up for your free daily meditation
|
|
|
|
From the spiritual side:
|
|
|
|
Creative
gratitude is an attitude. It is magnetic and will draw good to
you. It is good therapy, a road to happiness.
Thankfulness
is a way of living more fully. Be thankful for your health
and
you will have health in more abundance. Be thankful for
the love
you receive and it will be increased. Be thankful for your
success and you'll open doors to further achievement. Be
thankful for your friends and more friends will come to you. Be
thankful for beauty
and you'll experience it more deeply.
Thankfulness
is a way of enhancing relationships. Expressions of gratitude
create in others an eagerness
to reciprocate. When we become
more fully aware that our success
is due in large measure to the
loyalty, helpfulness, and encouragement
we have received from others,
our desire grows to pass on similar gifts. Gratitude spurs us on
to prove ourselves worthy of what others
have done for us. The
spirit of gratitude is a powerful energizer.
Thankfulness
is a way of worshiping. All through the Psalms
the emphasis is
on thankfulness: "Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving".
. .
"Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving". . .
"O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good; for His steadfast
love
endures forever". . . "I will give thanks to the Lord
with my whole heart."
When Jesus
healed the ten lepers only one returned to fall
at the feet of
the Master and give thanks to God. With this in mind someone has
written that nine were healed,
while the one who gave thanks was made
whole. The expression of gratitude made the big difference.
Creative
gratitude is a force for harmony and goodwill. It brings people
together in love and understanding. It is high on the scale of
creative qualities to be practiced
day in and day out in our
moment-to-moment contacts.
Wilferd A.
Peterson
|
|
|
|
When I awaken in the
morning, I am thankful for a new day. I am thankful
for everything that I have materially. I am
thankful for everything
that I have
spiritually. I
thank God for allowing me to experience
these things,
even the
experiences that may not seem so positive,
such
as developing an illness. I
may not understand why
I have the illness,
but I sense that it is there for a
purpose, and so I thank God for it. I ask him to
allow me to expand beyond
my narrow-mindedness
and self-centeredness
so that I can see the good
that comes from everything.
Betty Eadie
|
|
|
|
When
you consider everything we have is a gift from God,
it's amazing how
little gratitude we show. Giving to others
is such a small way to
say thank you.
Charles
L. Overby
|
|
|
|
These are
the gifts I ask
Of Thee, Spirit serene:
Strength for the daily task,
Courage to face the road,
Good cheer to help me bear the traveler's load,
And, for the hours of rest that come between,
An inward joy of all things heard and seen.
Henry Van Dyke
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
