There is a wonderful collection of quotes and thoughts on what it means to be grateful and thankful from GOOP (Gwenyth Paltrow's new website). My favorite is this one:
"Since the time that I chose to walk the path of thankfulness, I have tried to make gratitude my fundamental attitude, living in the present, grateful to the Unseen Mystery. Is that Mystery real? Or is the resentment, dissatisfaction, or self-conscious suffering I would otherwise experience more real?
I have come to trust that if we are patient with difficulty, the Unseen supports us. To express thankfulness is to attract goodness. Gratitude merely smiles at dissatisfaction and disappointment. In any moment we can choose to focus on the disappointments or losses we have experienced, on any number of details in our lives that might seem less than what we might want them to be. Or we can choose, instead, to be thankful for things great and small in the present. Above all, we can be grateful for our relationship with a Mystery that we may not fully comprehend but seems to be more and more present and real.
To be thankful for both abundance and hard times is wisdom, for thankfulness is the panacea that turns pain into happiness. Let’s celebrate Thanksgiving."
– Shaikh Kabir Helminski
Kabir Helminski is Shaikh of the Mevlevi Order, Co-director of The Threshold Society (Sufism.org).
It's worth a read. Check it out!
Have a wonderful thanksgiving!!
Be well
Bueller
