But what if we are not feeling grateful? This is also a season of feeling overwhelmed, stressed, exhausted and put upon. Traditions put us in a choke hold, making us do things we just don’t feel up for. Christmas again? Are you kidding me?
And some of us are dealing with loss -- of health, a loved one, abilities, freedoms, hope -- and it’s challenging to feel anything but the suffering we are experiencing.
Oddly, that’s when a deeper sense of gratitude, one that has nothing do do with what we have, is actually easier to find. When our lives are in a turmoil we tend to hunker down. If we don’t get lost in distractions or addictions, we can sense into this present moment as a refuge from all the trials and tribulations we have been experiencing and all the worry of what is to come. This moment fully experienced can be a sweet haven.
One student in class this week said that before she falls asleep at night she thinks of three things she is grateful for. Lovely! But if she has had a really rough day and it’s too hard to come up with anything, she is grateful for the softness of her mattress. Fabulous! In that moment she is fully present, anchored in physical sensation. That is exactly where we need to be in any given moment to go deeply into the joy of being present with what is.
(For more about this deep kind of gratitude, check out this post from 2009, titled ‘Gratitude for Everything”.)
Here is a poem that captures what we’re talking about:
Tumbling down the cliff,
I couldn’t help but notice
the cherry blossoms.
-- KuKu Kichigai,
18th century Japanese poet
18th century Japanese poet
In a sense, we are all tumbling down the cliff. We are all living temporal lives with a knowledge of the ending -- not the when or the how necessarily, but we all share the same fate. This is a simple truth that we tend to avoid most of the time. And yet we are naturally attracted to temporal things in our experience. Our eyes are drawn to the new, to the thing that is moving, to the things that are fleeting, like cherry blossoms.
Noticing the fleeting nature of life causes us to pay attention and be grateful. We may also go into states of fear, disappointment, longing. We may ask why can’t it stay like this? Without pondering too deeply, we find we wish for extensions on pleasurable moments. But a delicious meal if we eat too much becomes painful. A great party if we stay too long becomes tiresome. It is the fleeting nature of what delights our senses that makes them so delightful and makes us so grateful. So openly accepting the temporal nature of life helps us to receive it with grace and gratitude.
When we are struggling in our lives and gratitude is hard to come by, another door to find gratitude is to do an act of generosity. I am sure you have had the experience of doing something for someone and feeling lifted up by it, more alive and grateful.
So gratitude leads to generosity, and generosity leads to gratitude in an infinite loop. Wherever we are in any moment we can find one or the other. And the way to both is through being fully present in this moment and compassionate with ourselves and others.
Noticing the fleeting nature of life causes us to pay attention and be grateful. We may also go into states of fear, disappointment, longing. We may ask why can’t it stay like this? Without pondering too deeply, we find we wish for extensions on pleasurable moments. But a delicious meal if we eat too much becomes painful. A great party if we stay too long becomes tiresome. It is the fleeting nature of what delights our senses that makes them so delightful and makes us so grateful. So openly accepting the temporal nature of life helps us to receive it with grace and gratitude.
When we are struggling in our lives and gratitude is hard to come by, another door to find gratitude is to do an act of generosity. I am sure you have had the experience of doing something for someone and feeling lifted up by it, more alive and grateful.
So gratitude leads to generosity, and generosity leads to gratitude in an infinite loop. Wherever we are in any moment we can find one or the other. And the way to both is through being fully present in this moment and compassionate with ourselves and others.
Dear Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteThank you for introducing me to yet another poem that really strikes a chord. Your analogy of our temporal lives with tumbling down a cliff and noticing beauty along the way is delightful. In fact, both of your paragraphs relating to the fleeting nature of life in general gave me much to think of and to relate to. I am, indeed, "drawn to the new, to the thing that is moving, and to the things that are fleeting, like cherry blossoms" as you noted so aptly. When I am driving by myself, I tend to pull off to the side of the road to peacefully enjoy a sunrise or sunset at its peak. During these moments I experience fully the fleeting nature of life - these bittersweet pleasures can bring me to tears of joy. In reading your insightful blog I know that you are a kindred spirit and I'm grateful to have you in my life.
Love, Marita.