Gratitude

Join us on Tuesday, November 19th, 7:30 pm upstairs at Gypsy Blu!

"The essence of all beautiful art is gratitude.” – Friedrich Nietzche

In keeping with tradition, we'll be talking about gratitude this month, using the Thanksgiving season as a necessary pause and time to reflect on the things in our lives we are most grateful for, and how we can inject more gratitude into our lives, as a spiritual practice.

The Center for Health Minds recently did a study where they taught 5th graders basic mindfulness practices (being aware of your feelings at the moment without judging yourself) and then gave them cameras and asked them to capture photos of things they are grateful for. When reflecting on the activity students talked about photography as a tool to keep you calm and focused on what was right in front of you. They used the activity to calm their brains, and notice things that they typically walked right past. How might we use our cameras/smartphones differently if we were to take photos of what we're grateful for each day? What would we notice or focus on that we're currently missing?

Colossians 3:15 says "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful." This passage continues on to talk about singing songs of gratitude to God, and how to worship, but I do not think it's an accident that peace and thankfulness come before worship. It is because someone has peace and is thankful that they can worship fully, that they know why they are worshipping in the first place. Have you seen a connection between peacefulness and gratitude, or busyness and a lack of gratitude in your life?

What are you grateful for? When are you grateful? DO you have a gratitude practice, or is it when you remember to take a photo that you realize you're grateful? Have peace and awareness of the present been helpful or connected to gratitude in your life? What has gratitude made more beautiful to you?