Gratitude

Jorge Aguilar, Unsplash

“We look for the gift within whatever has been given. That gift could be some type of opportunity — an opportunity to reflect, to experience beauty, or to grow and learn through hardship.

And then we Go. We take whatever action might be called for.

It’s not happiness that makes us grateful. It’s gratitude that makes us happy.” — David Steindl-Rast

Honesty is grounded in humility and indeed in humiliation, and in admitting exactly where we are powerless. Honesty is not found in revealing the truth, but in understanding how deeply afraid of it we are. — David Whyte

The last five years has been a process of stripping away all superfluities from my life, an exercise in honesty. As David Whyte says, humiliation and humility entered my life, in this case through a side door quite unexpectedly, shockingly even. But now I see reason to be grateful for this turn of events. In fact, I now notice all the many ways on offer to create, using my best talents. I also see how, starting from this bedrock foundation, I can build a life I could call my own, using only things that spring from my true nature. That realization gives impetus, inspiration.

For some reason, my old life had compromises and pretenses I always felt queasy about. Inherited money gave advantage, but it was associated with…