“Winds” by Teresa Stanton “T”,Creative Commons “Attribution” licence at Flickr.
“To educate yourself for the feeling of gratitude means to take nothing for granted, but to always seek out and value the kind that will stand behind the action. Nothing that is done for you is a matter of course. Everything originates in a will for the good, which is directed at you. Train yourself never to put off the word or action for the expression of gratitude.”
– Albert Schweitzer
Letter to a Friend
I am your friend
and my love for you goes deep.
There is nothing I can give you
which you have not have:
but there is much, very much
that while I cannot give it,
you can take.No heaven can come to us
unless our hearts find rest
in today. Take heaven!
No peace lies in the future
which is not hidden
in this present little instant.
Take peace!The gloom of the world is but a shadow.
Behind it, yet within reach, is joy.
There is radiance and glory
in the darkness, could we but see,
and to see we have only to look.
I beseech you to look!Life is so generous a giver,
but we, judging its gifts by
the covering, cast them away
as ugly, or heavy or hard.
Remove the covering and
you will find beneath it
a living splendor,
woven of love,
by wisdom, with power.Welcome it, grasp it,
touch the angel’s hand
that brings it to you.
Everything we call a trial,
a sorrow, or a duty, believe me,
that angel’s hand is there,
the gift is there, and the wonder
of an overshadowing presence.
Our joys, too, be not
content with them as joys.
They, too, conceal diviner gifts.Life is so full of meaning and purpose,
so full of beauty,
beneath its covering—
that you will find earth
but cloaks your heaven.Courage, then, to claim it, that is all.
But courage you have,
and the knowledge that
we are all pilgrims together,
wending through unknown country, home.And so, at this time, I greet you,
not quite as the world sends greetings,
but with profound esteem
and with the prayer that for you
now and forever, the day breaks,
and the shadows flee away.Letter written by Fra Giovanni (1513)
I have chosen “Gratitude” as the first virtue for various reasons.
I find that when I’m stressed out and worried, I forget what is good and wonderful in my life. I forget all the things I can be grateful for. I become ungrateful, and as a result I get more and more annoyed and frustrated.
When I take the time to remember what I am grateful for, I invariably discover that things aren’t all that bad.
But most of all, I have picked “Gratitude” as the first virtue because I’m grateful for you.
I’m grateful beyond measure that you exist. That you are my friend. That I’ve had the pleasure to meet you online or offline or online and offline.
Thank you very much. You make my life so much better.