A Moment of Gratitude

Gratitude.

I like to think of myself as a grateful person. I try to say thank you as much as I can. I am appreciative of the little things, a quiet moment on the street with perfect light diffused across the trees and the soft contrast between the green of the leaves and the red of the brick. I appreciate finding a parking spot “good for tomorrow,” which means I don’t have to move it right away for the street sweepers. Today I am grateful to live near Prospect Park, which is like Central Park without tourists and without the stress. I ran through there like I was in the country, over dirt trails and across lush meadows, in deep shade and bright sun. Nice.

But these things are easy to be grateful for. What about the fact that I could run at all. That I can afford to buy food to replenish my energy? Don’t I take this for granted? Damn. I do. Once in a while I recite an elegantly crafted prayed from the Episcopal Prayer Book which covers the fruit of the harvest yada, yada, yada… But How do I live out my gratitude for life itself?

“In the day of prosperity, adversity is forgotten, and in the day of adversity, prosperity is not remembered.” (Sirach 11:25)

Gratitude is a type of un-forgetting. I un-forget how well I have been taken care of by God. I un-forget all those small things which are invisible because they are so everyday. Breathing. I had some serious asthma-like symptoms that was deemed Reactive Airway Disease when I was in college. I was running with the “rabbits” (the highly fit athletes in our ROTC unit) after a night of carousing and I suddenly couldn’t breathe. It was like I was choking on my own throat, I was terrified. You can bet I was grateful for breathing when my throat opened back up! But it didn’t last long.

When I have it is hard to remember what it was like to go without, and when I am without, it is hard to remember what it was like to have. I suppose gratitude is a way to live mindfully and to look for blessings in the everyday.

You should see the light in the trees outside my window right now. The birds are singing the glory of this moment. I am breathing deeply and I have forgotten suffering for now.