I am giddy, smitten, overcome with palpable gratitude: I just viewed a photograph I took earlier this morning as the firesmoke-enshrouded sun rose up through the trees edging my yard. And something primal woke up in me as I fell into the unexpected beauty of that image. My inner landscape feels vast and spacious. The air within is clear, bright. And all possibilities exist; I am burgeoning with wellbeing.
This is how great gratefulness can feel!
But a feeling of gratitude is transient, and is not the deepest entry point into a life of gratefulness. Being grateful is how we live the depths of gratitude—and this necessitates a process. Becoming conscious of the power of gratitude and making a commitment to be a conduit for and of it entails action: a frequent and sustained practice of the types of activities that water the seed of gratitude so that it might flourish.
In this article, I will offer a few short lists of what I have come to experience as some of the foundational practices of gratitude. I have loosely grouped them into categories: writing, nature, receiving/serving, and adversity. Coupled with these practices, I strive to deepen a set of sensitivities that I feel are “kin” to gratefulness: acceptance, compassion, kindness, generosity, gentleness, joy, peace, and presence. For me, these are also aspects of an impassioned, embodied experience of gratefulness. Anything we can do to cultivate these qualities will bolster our efforts at gratitude.
Writing for GratitudeThese require only a writing implement and paper. (I always advocate for handwritten over typewritten.)
Nature and Gratitude
All of these are intended to be done out of doors.
Receiving/Serving in Gratitude
We give the gift of gratitude by receiving others’ offers of support and kindness. We give a gift of gratitude, too, by offering the beauty and softness of ourselves to others.
Adversity and Gratitude
Even in the murky depths of a major life transition; disease, illness, or injury; grief; globally unstable times; or adversity in myriad other forms, we can find small blessings.
Again, these represent only a few of the basic practices I engage toward a more expressed life of gratefulness.
I return to that rising sun photo and am delighted with the contrasts of crisp edges alongside blurred ones. The white ball enclosed by leaf silhouettes, tinted with red, edged in black, yellow highlights, green barely visible; these bold hues are not the colors I associate with gratitude. Yet, they create for me an unambiguous surrender to awe, to the miracle of daily life unfolding. It is both the ordinariness and the surprise that hold me enraptured. This is gratitude; this is inexplicable gratefulness of the sort that propels me farther and further into communion with all beings. I think this is the point of gratitude: remembering our inextricable interconnection with all of life, and savoring each moment that we are given by divine grace.
Jennifer J. Wilhoit, PhD is a published author, spiritual ecologist, mentor, researcher, educator, consultant, peacemaker, & hospice volunteer. She founded TEALarbor stories through which she compassionately supports people’s deep storying processes; she is a partner with the Charter for Compassion. Her writing & work focus on the human/nature relationship: “the inner/outer landscape.” Jennifer thrives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest landscape where she lives.