A grateful heart

“A thankful person is thankful under all circumstances. A complaining soul complains even if he lives in paradise.” Baha’u’llah

This was the grace of choice that I recited before dinner as my son was growing up. It is still one of my favorite quotes. It’s not always easy, practicing gratitude, but practice makes better. In a society built on consumerism, it’s so easy to get caught up in never-ending cycles of acquisition; it’s almost inevitable to develop the mindset that believes we actually need all the things we want. All the things we buy. And if we cannot get them now, we sink into despair: Life is not beautiful and good and happy. We will be happy when we get X. We get X and then need Y. And then Z. But they have ABC! We need them, too!

But do we really need all the things we want or buy? Is the unhappiness that pulls us down when we cannot get everything our hearts desire unavoidable?

I am reminded of a trip to Ecuador I made many years ago.

I took a four-day trip to the Amazon with some classmates and we ran into a series of unexpected situations. The bus to our first destination was more like a tin of sardines and smelled as bad; worse still, the other passengers would not let me open a window. Seven hours of shoulder to shoulder, sweaty smelly bodies on a bus driven by a maniac. So many times I thought we were going to tip over into the abyss of stars that I could see out the window as we sped by other cars and buses on a narrow mountain road. The stars were more numerous than I had ever seen and quite lovely…except that the sky looked like it was within reach of my hand and too often I thought we would be touching it as we fell to our deaths. This scenic terror-filled drive was followed by discovering that the train we expected to take back to Quito on Sunday– which had been mentioned in my travel book – was no longer in service because of an earthquake that had taken place a few weeks before. And the next bus wouldn’t be for a week…a week we couldn’t wait since we needed to be back at school on Monday. (It was now Friday.) So, we hired a canoe to take us deeper into the rainforest to a town where we might be able to catch a plane. After the canoe ride, another bus ride and riding in the back of a pick-up truck, we finally got a seat on the floor of an Army cargo plane back to Quito on Sunday afternoon.

But the lesson.

We spent five hours in off-and-on-again rain with about 10 other people in a piranha-infested river. We dropped off a family of three on a beach where we saw NOTHING and they smiled happily as they waved goodbye and headed for the trees. We saw children playing and dancing on a river bank in front of a hut on stilts, laughing and having a great time. One of my classmates wondered how on earth they could be laughing happily while living in such circumstances. After considering the smiling faces, I said, “Why not? I suspect they don’t have a television telling them they should want something other than what they have. They apparently have enough food to keep their bellies from aching, and shelter from the elements. They have companionship. What else do they really need?”

I have retold that story many times over the years, to myself and to others. Here in the United States, we have so many reasons to be grateful, beginning with, if you are reading this, you woke up this morning. If we are fortunate, we have a place to sleep that protects us from the elements; we have heat when it’s cold outside, air conditioning or fans when it’s warm; comfortable beds with sheets and blankets; food; and clothing appropriate to the seasons. If we are really lucky, we have at least one person who we love and who loves us – a parent, a child, a teacher, a mentor, a friend.

Find your reason to be grateful every day: It makes life infinitely more beautiful.