Its easy to be grateful when everything is going well--or even tolerably. To be thankful for a beautiful day, for the grace of a walk in the forest,for the warmth of the hearth, the comfort of being with friends... .
It is less easy to be grateful when we are met with hardships and challenges. Because days come but once, it makes sense to seize every one. Of course we greet pleasure more gladly than suffering! Both, it seems to me, are of the essence in order that our own selves grow, flourish. When we understand the range that life has to offer we will feel not only happiness, but true joy.
The grace of thanksgiving
is the gratitude of action
that understands happiness.
When we are thankful for gifts—
of living with sunlight and shadow,
thankful for depths of friendship,
the nobilities of compassion, hope, and love
—the laughter of the brook joins ours.
We sing thanks for warming joys:
of solitude, woods, and brook.
We sing thanks for medodies
of happiness:
for delights of dusk and dawn.
We sing thanks for talents,
inspirations,
challenges and opportunity.
