Circles of Gratitude

Tags

abundance, gratitude, spirituality, thankfulness

No matter how long one she been away from the house – whether it be fifteen minutes or five hours – his welcome home greeting is always the same. It is as if his heart flows immense gratitude, and I can tell by his frantic dash to the door that connects the garage to the house, that “Mom’s back!”

Last evening was no different, other than that all of us had been out for a little bit. The sun had set in the interim between when we had left the house and when we returned. After his greetings and hugs, I opened the patio door to let him out on to the deck, so he could go and burn off some energy running around the yard. There was a rush of cold air which took me by surprise, as I had forgotten how quickly the temperature drops on these winter days after the sun goes down. What a beautiful circle of warmth is our Sun, I was reminded.

Stepping out and looking up at the crystal clear night sky which had just a solitary puff of a cloud hanging low under the firmament filled with stars, I caught my breath. Every single star, every visible and yet to be discovered planet and its moons, is another magnificent circle weaving a sphere. I stood there in the cold, clearing my mind of the day’s events, expressing gratitude for the great circle that is our near and far universe.

The owls in the forest may have caught a whiff of my standing reverie, for they decided to provide some impromptu background music . A single owl started the circle of sound, and it didn’t take long for the circle to expand into a full blown forest-jam. More gratitude flowed with a smile, as the louder they sang, the faster he seemed to run around the yard under the glittering dark sky.

From the small to the big, from those close to earth to the extremely distant, the spheres and circles where we may find gratitude are omnipresent. It may be our inclination to be easily distracted by the seemingly perpetual stream of aches and pains, trials and tribulations. In challenge-filled situations, our propensity may be to contract our circle(s), when in fact we may be well served by doing exactly the opposite.

The truth is that we can actually expand and contract our circles at the same time. If we find ourselves contracting our family circle, we may decide to expand our circle of friends. If we need to contract both family and friends, we can expand our circle with nature by simply walking outside. In our spiritual practice, when we make time for yoga or meditation or silence, we may be contracting within, and yet often find ourselves expanding the love and light in our heart.

The key is to remember that all of our circles and spheres, from the microcosm of every electron with every cell of our body, to the macrocosm of distant stars and galaxies, are playgrounds for life. When we accept the invitation of life’s myriad circles with an of attitude playing with a smile, of singing with joy, to observing with the heart’s light, life fills us with her abundances.

And for life’s abundances, the twelve pound havanese puppy named “bubbles”, and I are both grateful. How about you and your circles? Where are you discovering gratitude and expressing thanks today?

Kumud

P.S. Please join our weekly gathering on twitter, where gratitude often streams in abundance – Sunday, November 24th at 9amET in #SpiritChat. Our circle is ever-welcoming of new folks. Namaste – @AjmaniK

P.P.S. This post is dedicated to my maternal aunt, who was instrumental in teaching me so much about life and its circles and spheres, as she raised me from the age of seven to twenty one. It would have been her 90th birthday today, 23 Nov 2019. Thank you, dear Mom!

The Gratitude Challenge

Tags

challenges, gratitude, spirituality, thankfulness, thanksgiving

If the number of blog posts that I have written about Thanksgiving are a good measure, then it is an open secret that this is my favorite American holiday. The confluence of many events after my arrival here in the fall for graduate studies, led to a heart-warning introduction to this family-first holiday of “giving thanks”. Even though the holiday itself was “all new” to me, the notion of giving thanks felt as old as the hills.

It reminded me of two words – the first being dhanyavaad – the formal expression of thanks in India. It is a combination of two words, dhanya, meaning blessed or most fortunate, and vaad meaning, an event or a happening. The second, somewhat informal word expressing thanks often used in India is shukriya – a combination of shu-bh meaning auspicious, and kriya meaning action or practice.

It ought to be no surprise that the words used in the expression of gratitude are similar across languages. The very sound of a heartfelt “thank you” or “gracias” or “merci” or “shukriya” is often music for our hearts. When the music of thanksgiving creates harmony, it brings joy to the giver and the receiver. So, with these apparent benefits, what possible challenge(s) could there be in the path of our practice of gratitude?

The first challenge is that we are much more open to giving thanks to others than receiving it. We somehow carry around the notion that we are perhaps undeserving of others’ gratitude. The second notion is that “no thanks is due” because we are simply “doing our duty” and that we are best off doing it without any expectation of reward and such. The third notion is that if we accept it from them, we are somehow bound into reciprocity. Do you identify with any of these notions of receiving gratitude?

The second challenge is that we are unsure of the who, why, how, when and where of giving thanks to others. In a world where our offline relationships are getting lesser and lesser time, space and engagement, we are perhaps losing the opportunity to practice the art of saying thanks. Or maybe we don’t have enough role models in our communities who give thanks with grace and unfettered joy. Who was a role model for “giving thanks” for you? For me, it was my maternal grandmother. I don’t know that I remember her saying “dhanyavad” or “shukriya” very often, but her actions spoke volumes. A slight smile, a gentle tilt of the head, a leaning in during conversation- they all felt like she was giving gratitude with every action, in every engagement.

The third challenge in our gratitude practice is the notion that we don’t have “enough”. The great irony that “Black Friday” comes earlier and earlier every year may not be lost on many of us. To my mind, it is simply an outsized attempt to somehow convince us of the “lack” in our lives.

But I have news for you. The first part of the Heartfulness meditation practice is “relaxation”. The intent is to creates awareness of our body, in the form of a slow scan beginning from the toes, traveling through several parts of the lower and upper body, to the crown of the head. As I did the relaxation this morning, I became aware, and thankful, for the mere presence and good health of every single one of my body’s internal and external organs. The gratitude that swept through me after I was done, was a bit overwhelming. Try it. It will only take a few minutes, and you can do it wherever you are. Repeat this ‘relaxation into gratitude’ exercise often, and it will become a portable resource that you can take with you.

So, here we are. Thanksgiving is here again. Maybe we will continue to work our challenges, of giving, of receiving, of (lack of? too much?) abundance. So that the day of, and the days before and after Thanksgiving will bring us a series of opportunities to experience dhanyavaad or gratitude-filled interactions.

Kumud @AjmaniK

P.S. Join the #SpiritChat community on Twitter for our weekly chat – Sunday, November 18 at 9amET / 730pm India ~ shukriya and Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Bridges…

Tags

gratitude, sharing, thanksgiving

I share #Thanksgiving greetings with all who share so generously of whatever they have with those who are in need…
I believe, through personal experience, that this is one holiday that represents the true ethos and heart of what is America. 

A giving, sharing, celebrating, welcoming people at their core – who took this stranger into their home – yes, literally – thirty odd years ago, sat me (and my two graduate school roommates from India who had barely been here for eight weeks) at their family holiday table and poured so much love, affection and food(!) into us that it became the glue that cemented us to them,  and this country. 

All three of us are still here – two of us even left for a few years, only to return – now with families, careers and doing our small part to give back and share that same heart and ethos with others – yes, even strangers.
Thank you, Shirley and family of Blacksburg, VA. I still remember the prayer that hung on your kitchen wall that day and reflected your spirit of giving – 

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want…”

You may have lived in small town America but your heart was as vast as the prairies on which the winds sing the songs of grace and gratitude…

I celebrate you, all of you and the spirit of thanksgiving that helps build bridges… May the thanks and the giving continue…

Namaste…

Kumud

On Giving and Grace

Tags

giving, grace, gratitude, poetry

It is mid November. The tall trees slowly shed their leaves in an act of seasonal giving. The forest floor cradles the precious gift of glorious colors with autumnal grace. The winds seem to shift from their warm hue to a coooler shade of blue. There is much talk of the upcoming ‘holidays’ in the air, and ‘thanksgiving’ is less than a week away.

It is perhaps time to reflect on how our practice of ‘giving’ and ‘receiving’ has evolved over the years. How can we make this ‘thanksgiving’ more filled with purpose than the ones of years past? It is relatively easy for us to be graceful and thankful in our acts of giving. How can we attach the same level of grace to our receiving? Can we become like the forest floor in autumn and let our hearts be wide open in our receiving?

As the wind whooshes through in the ‘wind tunnel’ between my home and the forest behind it, I clutch my cup of warm tea a little bit more firmly. It is as if I am trying to hold on to the sliver of summer’s residual warmth, before the onset of winter takes it away from me. The open book of Rumi’s poetry in front of me reminds me of grace…

Who is this with his hand out
saying, please, give just a little,
so I can give you a kingdom.

A little further on, I am reminded of eternity…

He makes this dying world eternal
His greatest alchemy
is how he does the unbinding
that keeps love from breathing deep.

And the value of patience…

Every second he changes cruelty
to loyal friendship.

We think of ourselves as ‘givers’ and ‘receivers’, and then there is this reminder…

Out of unconditioned emptiness
comes this planet with all its qualities.

And then, a nudge towards the grace of silence, of being, of becoming…

Be silent now.
Say fewer and fewer praise poems.
Let yourself become living poetry.
– Rumi in ‘Soul Houses’

Ever so slightly, I loosen my clasp on the warm cup of tea. I walk over to the tightly shut window, and loosen the latch to crack it open a little bit. The whooshing wind rushes in. Ever so slightly, in small actions performed with love, I yield. I am going to greet winter with grace. For it, I shall be thankful. Let me receive it with the same heart-filled-with-joy that I received summer, spring and autumn.

I may be excessive with my giveaway impulses,
but I still have what you gave
when you held my head against your chest
– Rumi in ‘What You Gave’

Let me take this opportunity to express my deep gratitude to every single one of you in the #SpiritChat community… Thank you for adding your grace to my life.

I will be silent now…

Kumud @AjmaniK

P.S. Join me and the #SpiritChat community as we explore ‘Giving and Grace’ – Sunday, November 19th at 9amEST / 2pm UTC / 7:30pm IST on twitter.

On Giving and Gratitude

Tags

giving, gratitude

As we head into the last few days of November and the ‘shopping’ season for gifts and giving seems to be upon us with the approach of the holidays, I pause and reflect on the nature of Giving and its connection to Gratitude (which has been the #SpiritChat theme for this month).

First, a look back. What was given to me in the past year that I am truly grateful for? For me, this question is relatively easy to answer, as it pertains to my personal sense of gratitude. Last November, I was given an invitation to begin a new practice of #meditation. For that, I am very grateful. My practice of the morning meditation has become a habit that has brought many hours of ‘struggle’ and many moments of joy to my heart. And as I grow in this practice of sitting, silence, serenity and surrender, my heart knows that my sense of gratitude will only increase.

As if to balance my sitting practice, Nature gave me an invitation to walk amongst her over the past year. I admit that I am not much of a ‘goal setting’ kind of person, but the fact that I set (and then carefully tracked) a goal of walking 10,000 steps everyday worked wonders for me. On days when I didn’t ‘feel like it’, my goal energized me to put on my walking shoes and many layers of clothes and go be in solitude with nature. By giving in to my goal, I received the gifts of hundreds of miles of walking in nature, in every season.

I was given an opportunity to volunteer at my daughter’s school. I was given a chance to renew and revitalize friendships that go back many decades. I was invited to from new partnerships, get involved in new projects in my professional career. I was also given a choice to walk away from beliefs and relationships that were toxic to my spiritual and personal growth. For all of these, I am grateful.

In the face of what was perhaps the greatest challenge given to me this year, I discovered some resilient parts of me, and those around me, that I never knew existed. In the wake of my mother’s sudden passing in February, I was the grateful beneficiary of the outpouring of words and actions of many in the #SpiritChat community. Thank you. In the process of healing, I (re)discovered the gift of empathy for those healing from grief of loss of loved ones.

It seems that this has become a post about (my) ‘receiving and gratitude’. And that is okay, because this was a good exercise for me to reflect on the receiving of the intangibles in life. And from the receiving springs the giving. Maybe I could have asked a different question at the beginning. What did I give to others – or enable and empower them to receive in the past year, that they were truly grateful for? Maybe I did not ask this question because it requires feedback from the receivers – only their heart knows… 🙂 I invite you to do this exercise. Take a few minutes and blog/journal/write your answer to the first question – What was given to me in the past year that I am truly grateful for?

In conclusion, a short story from Indian history about the nature of giving and gratitude…

Poet and visionary, Tulsidas asks Rahim, who was a great ‘giver’ and one of the nine ‘jewels’ or advisors in Akbar’s court:

where did you learn such giving? the more you seem to give, the lower you seem to cast your eyes, averting the receiver! why do you avoid the gaze of those that you give to?

And Rahim, knowing that Tulsidas already knows the answer, replies anyway…

The True Giver is someone else, bestowing, day and night. So that the world may not give me undue credit, downcast are my eyes…

In our giving, may we be conduits. Namaste,

Kumud

I invite you to join us for our weekly twitter chat – Sunday, November 27th at 9amET / 2pmUTC / 7:30pm India – we will talk more about ‘Giving and Gratitude". Thank you.

The Zentangle Heart of Giving (art by AA)

On Thankful Expressions

Tags

expressions, gratitude, spirituality, thankfulness

And as I clutch my freshly-brewed cup of chamomile tea, feet dangling above the patio as I sit in the open door-frame of the morning room where the steps have gone missing as they are being repainted, it is still a balmy sixty degrees at 10pm on this mid-November Friday night…

I wonder if any more inordinately warm nights like this still remain on tap for this year, or is this it? The breeze that seems to pick up speed with every passing quarter hour as it increasingly rustles the leaves that are still green on some of the trees that have ignored the entreaties of autumn and refuse to turn for the home that is the earth below indicates that this may indeed be the case.

The clear skies glistening with stars are slowly being consumed by the clouds that are moving in swiftly, as if to make an honest person out of the forecaster who has had plenty of time to get it right this time! We seem to be losing degrees by the minute as autumn is going to have to yield to a brush with winter in the early hours of the morning, and rain and maybe even snow shall be upon us for the next week or so…

The voices of teenagers ring out clearly from the other side of the thicket of trees, a hundred or so feet away as the faint flickering of a bonfire that would be hidden in the thick of summer leaves now flickers through a wedge of the forest where the trees have carpeted the floor for a week or so now…

And among all of this, I reflect on thankfulness and its many expressions…

Am I grateful to be welcoming winter after having enjoyed a few unseasonably warm days so late into November? If so, how may I express this sense of gratitude? Am I grateful that the backyard that is already wet and muddy is going to be saturated even more by the cold front’s incessant rain? Am I grateful that there will be even more wet leaves for me to blow and rake over the next few days? Am I grateful that I will not see the four day old dwindling full moon shine its light through my bedroom windows and stir my dreams awake in the middle of the night as it is unable to penetrates the thick veil of clouds being spread over the sky by the storm?

But, you see, all of that is of the future… and when I choose to return to this moment, I am indeed grateful for the hint of coolness that wraps around my fingers that are wrapped around the warm mug of tea –

I am thankful for the leaf that bounces off my head into the morning through the open door and lands beside by hot water carafe, anchoring me into the moment –

I am thankful that the laughter of mother and daughter streams through the upstairs bedroom window that can still remain open due to the warmness of a moment of mirth shared by them –

I am thankful for the puppy who nuzzles behind me as he tries to squeeze his way out the door around me to go frolic in the backyard and say his own goodbye to autumn – and I am grateful that the clouds have parted just enough up above to reveal the tail of the little bear in the western skies

The expressions of thankfulness and gratitude are as many as the quarter hours that pass by – I just have to be present to this moment – it’ stillness, its near and distant sounds, its light and its lightness, its connection to the earth, the wind, the clouds, and the celestials…

Yes, a simple cup of tea on a warm November night quickly turning cold can become a beautiful expression of thankfulness, of gratitude, and more. And as some of us gather around the tables big and small this week, may we take a moment of grace to express our gratitude to and for each other, and for being together, in That moment of shared Joy.

Namaste.

Kumud @AjmaniK

Do join us on twitter on Sunday, November 20th at 9amET/2pmUTC and share your ‘Thankful Expressions’ – how do you express thankfulness to yourself and others? what (new) ideas for thankful expression may have you discovered and implemented recently? what thankful expressions extended towards you do you best respond to? And more…
I will brew the tea and some questions. You all bring some answers and goodies to share 🙂 Thank you for sharing, and reading my ‘stream of thought’ post for this topic!

Moon among Clouds – Thankful Expressions (photo by CA)

On Gratitude Through Connection

Tags

connection, gratitude, spirituality

At the beginning of November, I proposed that all the four chats in this month be based on the theme of ‘thankfulness and gratitude’. In the wake of the election results of the US presidential election that have created disbelief, turmoil and despair for one side, and perhaps an equal amount of disbelief and (muted) celebration for the other, I believe that there is a great opportunity for refocusing on gratitude through connection. How grateful are we truly for what has transpired? How connected or disconnected are we from the reality that surrounds us?

Many thoughts on connection have percolated through my heart and mind. Some of them have come during my walking soujourns, while others have arrived during my meditation practice. I share some of them with you, with much humility, on the premise that you may connect with one or more threads, and weave your own tapestry of gratitude. I remain grateful to be the conduit for what follows…

• Connect with sound, light, touch, color, movement, silence and stillness – write, paint, dance, compose, read, meditate – reconnect with your heart and soul, and be grateful for all your talents.

• Connect with the heart of those on the ‘other side of the fence’. Travel outside your echo chamber and listen to their voices – truly listen without the labels.

• Be a bridge person and tear down the wall(s) that may disconnect you from empathy, compassion and joy. Feel the gratitude flow through you as you do this.

• Connect with nature, with children, with pets, with pet-projects, with plans that you have put on hold, and with whatever returns you to your creative and creating mode. That is the true celebration of gratitude.

• Connect with volunteering, the under-privileged, the nursing homes, the senior centers, the libraries, the homeless and women’s shelters, the soup kitchens, the Habitats for Humanity and more – nobody can take that power of connection away from you. The more you do this, the more it is that gratitude will exponentially grow.

• Make a music or movie or reading playlist, an activity playbook of writing or gardening or cooking or… Make two of each. One for the happy times (joy) AND the other for the not-so-happy ones (melancholy). Connect to the joy playlist and playbook when in excess melancholy, and connect to melancholy when in excess joy, or as you deem appropriate. And then, one day when you have learnt to mostly be in equanimity, you will find that the two playlists and playbooks have merged into One. You have arrived at, connected with your center, and more importantly – you have learned to stay there. At the center.

• It is when we go outside of ourselves to go beyond, past the surface waves that keep us bound to our familiar but limited shores of temporary victory and defeat, that we train ourselves to connect – and stay connected – with the permanence of the deep sea of gratitude…

• Connect with ‘those people’ – the plumber, the electrician, the housekeeper, the landscaper, the delivery man, the older neighbor couple across the street, the veteran next door, and more. When they come into your space, make them feel that they matter. Offer a big smile, a cup of coffee, a small tip at the end of their job, offer to blow the leaves in their yard, give them a ride to their doctor’s appointment… Any and every random act of kindness elevates the level of connection, of gratitude.

• Why do we need to connect? The heart is the space of the infinite – and the infinite cannot be whole if the two circles that join to form the union choose to remain separated and split – it is in their connection in the middle, in their slightest of touches, that the two individual circles can form the infinite – and then there is a quantum jump – all possibilities of connection between zero and infinity become possible…

• How do we reconnect despite our ‘differences’? We can choose to go from an infinitesimal separation to infinite connection with a very slight opening of our closed circles. We may have to stretch and contort a bit to accommodate the other (circle). Visualize the infinity symbol in 3-D space where there is a continuum created by a single line curving around upon itself. On the other hand, we can also choose to stay infinitely disconnected while being in infinitesimal proximity ~ people living in the same house who are in physical proximity but emotionally on separate planets, two neighbors in disagreement, two nations within a single nation, and so on. More often than not, it only takes a very slight movement towards each other’s heartspace for us to ‘break the disconnect’ and bring us into that field of attraction where we can find renewed connection. Find that activation energy. We all have it within us.

That is all. I hope that you will read and reflect on some of the above. I am grateful for my connection with each and every one of you. Every interaction with you has helped me move, even if ever so slightly, towards the center. Towards the heart. Towards the infinite possibilites that love unveils.

Namaste,

Kumud @AjmaniK

Do connect with the #SpiritChat community on twitter – Sunday, November 13th at 9amET/2pmUTC. I know that many, including me, will be grateful for your shared wisdom. Thank you.

Gratitude through Connection!

On Choices and Gratitude

Tags

choices, gratitude, spiritchat, thankfulness

Novemeber is the month when the focus of many in the USA shifts to giving and gratitude. It is perhaps brought on by the anticipation of the Thanksgiving season and the holidays that follow in the month of December. In order to honor giving (of thanks) and (the attitude of) gratitude, our four Sunday conversations in November will focus on four aspects of gratitude – the choices, the preparation, the expression, and the giving.

We begin with choices, and choosing gratitude. As I see it, our ability to choose is a wonderful freedom which we may often take for granted. In fact, the extent of how much inner freedom we experience may be directly correlated to the choices that we truly have. Beyond the number of choices, the quality of the choices that we are afforded is also important to our well-being. In order to dig a bit deeper, I came up with the following four classifications for our choices. I posit that true gratitude results from an optimal combination of one attribute from each class.

Class 1. The time-frame that the choice affects. It may be short (immediate), medium, or long. Of course, these are all ‘relative’ in nature – a ‘short’ time for us humans is an entire lifetime for a butterfly. But, sticking to humanity, the weight and consideration that we give to short-term choices is often much less than we give to our long-term ones. What we choose to eat for dinner is often an easy choice as compared to where we are going for vacation or what we choose as a career. Short. Medium. Long.

Class 2. The space-frame that the choice influences. These may be personal, local, or global. I could choose to sleep the extra fifteen minutes and lose my ‘window’ for morning meditation. The effect of that choice is mostly personal. Although, if said choice influences my attitude negatively, it could affect the locals around me. An example of a choice that (in)directly affects the local community, town or city around me is my decision at the voting booth. I would at least like to believe that it does. Examples of global influences of my choices would be ‘paper or plastic’, ‘GMO or non-GMO’, ‘gasoline or electric’ and so on. And then, of course, to weave the spaces all together is the ‘butterfly effect’. Not so cut and dry, is it?

Class 3. The domain that the choice impacts. Mind, Body or Spirit. What we choose to input into our mind (through our senses) is a qualified choice that we make in every moment. As I write this post, there are a lot of external inputs competing for my mindspace. I am choosing to actively filter out a lot of the inessential ones. I hope I am choosing well for the sake of some degree of coherence. The body and its well-being is largely dependent on the quality of our food and air and water choices. And what about our spirit? How do we make choices that will be helpful and healthful for the heart and spirit? We may have to make choices that address the health and healing of our mind and body. Then, within a sound, healthy mind and body, gratitude will flourish, and our spiritual choices will be most impactful to us and those around us.

Class 4. Our choices affect our attitudes. According to Sage Patanjali, these are – compassion (towards suffering), joy (in their joy), friendship (to those friendly to us), and indifference (to those of wicked intent). It is when our choices grow these four attitudes in a positive way, that inner gratitude manifests fully. Our peace becomes unshakable and has a permanence about it. In such choosing, we are not anxious or fearful that our choices are going to be negated by those made by others. We have made our choice in the highest awareness possible to us in the current state of our mind, body and spirit.

There are a lot of possibilities for us in our choices, particularly when we view them in the four-class framework presented above. In fact, there are one hundred and eight of them. As we live our lives, and make our conscious, sub-conscious and super-conscious choices, we can use this classification to help guide us. If the classes seem arbitrary or incomplete to you, I invite and welcome you to extend, modify and edit them. Create your own choice framework. Play with it. Evaluate it from time to time.

Above all, I know that our freedom to choose, even if others consider us to be making a mistaken choice, is our greatest freedom (Mahatma Gandhi). And for that, we can be grateful. Isn’t that wonderful?

Kumud @AjmaniK

Join us in our weekly #SpiritChat on twitter – Sunday, November 6th 2016 at 9amET/2pmUTC/7:30pm India. Let us discuss our choice framework with a sense of gratitude. Namaste 🙂 (Note that the USA reverts to ‘Standard Time’ this Sunday, so adjust your clocks if you are in the USA. For other countries, the chat will happen an hour later than usual – unless you are choosing to push back your clocks by an hour too!)

On Practicing Gratitude

Tags

gratitude, radiance, spiritchat, spirituality

The final Thursday of November in the USA is a celebration of family that is observed in the form of the National Holiday called “ThanksGiving”. As the name suggests, it uses two beautiful words ~ Thanks, and Giving ~ and fuses them together, as if two hands are joining together in the traditional Indian greeting of Namaste. As a new international student in the USA, it was the first holiday that I was fortunate enough to experience. My college roommates “host family” welcomed us ~ their “adopted sons” ~ into their home for Thanksgiving Dinner, where we were fortunate enough to enjoy food, laughter and joy in a warm loving environment.

Thank you, Ms Shirley, of Blacksburg, Virginia, for that wonderful experience. You taught us that a warm heart is a beautiful bridge that establishes connections across faiths, across color, across cultures and across countries. It also taught us that a giving of thanks with our hands is a powerful expression of our faith and our beliefs. It brings out the best in those who choose to give, and those who choose to receive. And I am glad that I chose to receive that day, almost thirty years ago.

My first response to that invitation, arising from my introvert nature and newness to the country, was to let my roommate go to the Thanksgiving dinner by himself. It was his “host family”, not mine, was my excuse. But, Ms Shirley insisted to him that she wouldn’t take no for an answer. All the three roommates had to come to dinner. They would come pick us up at the appointed hour. And so it was that three Indian students, barely ten weeks in the USA, ended up sitting around the dinner table with a bunch of Southern Virginia folks whose hearts were as big as the New River valley.

Yes, we often do not know the blessings that we miss out on, when we choose not to receive. One thing that we perhaps miss out on, is the opportunity to say thanks, to express gratitude for receiving. The other thing that we miss out on is to experience the joy that those who give, get in their acts of giving. Imagine, if we had all this abundance that we wanted to share, but there was nobody to share it with! Would we not be denied the joy of giving? What would our communities look and feel like, if we did not or could not share our joy with our neighbors?

For some folks, expressing gratitude to others does not come naturally. In response, they shy away, figuratively and literally, from receiving. They feel that if they are recipients, they may have to reciprocate, even if it is by simply saying thank you. Very often, the giver transfers this expectation of reciprocity, or expectation of gratitude, during their act(s) of giving. However, it is may be useful to remember that the practice of gratitude is as much an attitude of the heart and spirit, as it is an action. This is well summarized as:

Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world. ~ Sarah Ban Breathnach

The purpose of gratitude is to connect us to the power of abundance and the radiance of the infinite power that is at our spiritual fingertips. Perhaps, in simply expressing thanks, through our thoughts, in our actions, in our meditations, we renew the connection to these abundant powers. And, in renewal lies the spirit of all holidays, doesn’t it? A beautiful reminder of the practice of gratitude follows:

We are to be radiant, grateful, buoyant people basking in our blessings and striving cheerfully toward our dreams under the bright and loving sunshine of the Divine. It takes only will and conditioning to enjoy such a life. Let us make the choice to reexamine our attitude and orientation to life, to cultivate a more positive and present pulse. Let us declare: We Shall Practice Joy and Gratitude. ~ Brendon Burchard in The Motivation Manifesto

I invite you to celebrate the “Practice of Gratitude”, and to join us online in our weekly twitter chat, Sunday November 22nd at 9amET / 2pmUTC / 7:30pm India in #SpiritChat. We will talk about the first part of ThanksGiving this Sunday. Next week, we will talk about Giving and Service.

Namaste!

Kumud @AjmaniK

P.S. Our scheduled chat for this week with guest @AAPremlall is rescheduled to a later date. Grateful for Anandi, sending her healing energy, and I look forward to hosting her to talk about “Spiritual Food and Nutrition” 🙂

Beyond Gratitude – Practical Spirituality

Tags

gratitude, thanks, thanksgiving

The topics in #SpiritChat for the first two weeks of November have been “Renewal with Community Spirit” and “Healing from the Inside Out”. All the experts seem to agree that a key component of renewal, and healing, is perhaps developing a sense of gratitude or contentment. One definition of gratitude is

the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness

The quality of being thankful. Readiness to show appreciation. To return kindness. I may add – a return to kindness to these three phrases. Whatever your definition of gratitude, these phrases have so much power in them, when we employ them in a practical way – with our heart and beyond – from the core of our spirit.

My good friend Simon Harvey (@simon_gb on twitter ) had said in reference to gratitude…

Without gratitude the quality of a life, any life, is devalued. – Simon Harvey

What a beautiful statement!

As we step into the third week of November, a lot of those in the USA look forward to the very family-centric holiday of Thanksgiving. It is an opportunity for families to get together, share a meal, take some time to be together, to be thankful for the journey of the past year, and look forward to the journey ahead. Our #SpiritChat discussion last November had asked some questions about gratitude.

How does adopting a sense of gratitude affect our spiritual growth? Are those who are more inclined to towards spirituality, necessarily more aware than others of their sense of gratitude? How can we actually increase our sense of gratitude over time? How does an attitude of gratitude (or the lack of it) affect our physical, emotional and spiritual well-being?

I believe these questions are equally (if not more) relevant today, as they were last year. We can perhaps add another question. How do we go beyond simply expressing gratitude – towards practical spirituality in our lives?

I close with a big thank you. I am grateful to all those who have shared in #SpiritChat in the past, and continue to do so every week. Your presence inspires me to continue the weekly chats. And now, an invitation.

Please join us in a SpiritChat discussion this Sunday, November 18th at 9am ET as we explore the subject of how we can use the power of gratitude to practically affect our own lives and those around us.

Kumud

Update: Here is the html Transcript for the chat. Here is the pdf version for download. Also see the questions asked during the live chat on our topic of Gratitude. Thank you – grateful to all who shared!

Q1. Gratitude. A single word with great power. What does this power mean to you? #SpiritChat 

Q2. Why is it important to express gratitude? What are some good ways of expressing it? #SpiritChat 

Q3. Does it bother you when others do NOT express gratitude to you? Why or why not? #SpiritChat 

Q4. How does an attitude of gratitude (or the lack of it) affect our physical, emotional and spiritual well-being? #SpiritChat 

Q5. Can our daily spiritual practice(s) create a constant attitude of gratitude within us? How? #SpiritChat  

Q6. If you could go back and express gratitude to one, who would it be? What would you say? #SpiritChat 

Q7. Look ahead. How can families and communities be strengthened by our practice of gratitude? #SpiritChat

Final Q8. I will practice REAL gratitude by... ? #SpiritChat