Gratitude

Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, once a year; to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow.
~Edward Sandford Martin

None is more impoverished than the one who has no gratitude. Gratitude is a currency that we can mint for ourselves, and spend without fear of bankruptcy.
~Fred De Witt Van Amburgh

The examen based on the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius, helps a person hold onto what spiritually nourishes him by looking at what is giving him consolation in his life or causing him desolation. It allows someone to express his gratitude to God for the good stuff and turn to him for solace for the bad stuff.

I would like to be brief for what I am grateful and ignore what I am not so grateful for this week.

For what am I most grateful?

I am grateful for my new home, new colleagues, and new experiences (even though I sometimes want everything to be the same again); for my former colleagues and old friends; for my family… for my grandmother’s health, for my brother’s recent surgery being successful, for all of their support; and for my health and safety, for the freedom to do what I want most of the time.

And my big accomplishment of the past week… I have wrapped half of my Christmas presents! I am feeling ahead of the game.

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.
~William Arthur Ward

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.
~Melody Beattie

We can always find something to be thankful for, and there may be reasons why we ought to be thankful for even those dispensations which appear dark and frowning.
~Albert Barnes