November has begun, and with it the flurry of "I am grateful for..." postings on Facebook. I participated last year, and I'm doing it again this year. I like the idea, of posting something I'm grateful for each day, and the way that it really does keep me attuned to the bounty in my world.
But this year I wanted to try something a little deeper. As clergy in a tradition that places emphasis on human relationships, I wondered about being grateful not just for something, but to someone. Sometimes my gratitude really does go out to the universe in all its mystery, but often there's a person who can be seen as the source of the bounty, a person who deserves my thanks.
So this November, I'm writing thank you notes. Schooled in the art from a young age by my mother, I think that thank you notes really are a hallmark of a civil society. But more than that, they connect my experience of gratitude to the person who's given me something. And they give me a chance to spread gratitude, to share my feeling of abundance.
I've been wanting to try thank you notes as a spiritual practice for a while, and this is the right chance for me. I invite you to join me this month. Spread a little gratitude around. They're like the best kind of chain letter: nothing will happen if you don't send a thank you note, but something wonderful might happen if you do.
No comments:
Post a Comment