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Henry Nouwen: “The choice for gratitude rarely comes without some real effort.
But each time I make it, the next choice is a little easier, a little freer,
a little less self-conscious.”
So let’s practice, okay?
As you come to stillness, you might bring that slight smile to the mouth,
sense the inside of the mouth smiling,
soften your eyes,
take a few full breaths.
The invitation is to reflect on what you are grateful for and to whisper out loud:
"I am grateful for…” - or else it might be “I am grateful to…” -
but just keep whispering whatever comes up.
And then after you have whispered just pause for a moment to sense the experience
that comes with that gratitude in your body.
Okay? Begin:
whispering, don’t be shy, nobody else is really listening to you,
whispering what you are grateful for.
[whispers]
And then picking one thing that you have named that really resonates for you.
Whispering it again a few times.
It might be the name of a child or something very precious to you that you are grateful for.
Whisper it and feel your sincerity becoming more and more real and alive.
Feel in your body what it is like when gratitude is flowing, is filling you.
Notice the sense of your being,
the unconfined quality of presence, of open-heartedness.
This poem that I will read is by Raymond Carver, he says:
“No other word will do.
For what it was.
Gravy.
Gravy, these past ten years.
Alive, sober, working, loving, and being loved by a good woman.
Eleven years ago he was told he had six months to live
at the rate he was going.
And he was going nowhere but down.
So he changed his ways somehow.
He quit drinking!
And the rest?
After that it was all gravy, every minute of it, up to and including when he was told about,
well, some things that were breaking down
and building up inside his head.
“Don’t weep for me,” he said to his friends.
“I’m a lucky man.
I’ve had ten years longer than I or anyone expected.
Pure Gravy.
And don’t forget it.”
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