In a sense, gratitude is an expression of modesty.
In Hebrew, the word for gratitude - hoda'ah - is the same as the word for confession.
To offer thanks is to confess dependence,
to acknowledge that others have the power to benefit you,
to admit that your life is better because of their efforts.
That frame of mind is indispensable to civilized society.
So, be thankful.
Don't take the gifts in your life for granted.
Remember - as the Pilgrims remembered - that we are
impoverished without each other, and without God.
Whoever and wherever you are this Thanksgiving, the good in your life outweighs the bad.
If that doesn't deserve our gratitude, what does?
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
Opening the Door to Pleasure and Joy In Your Life
Learning to be thankful, whether to God or to other people, is the best vaccination against taking good fortune for granted.
And the less you take for granted, the more pleasure and joy life will bring you.
If you assume that the good things in your life are normal and to be expected, you diminish the happiness they can bring you.
By contrast, if you train yourself to develop the custom of counting your blessings and being grateful for them, you will fill your life with cheer.
Sure, it can be hard to do.
Like most useful skills, it takes years of practice before it becomes second nature.
This is one reason that coming to church and connecting with others leads to happiness - it ingrains the habits of thankfulness.
People who thank God before each meal, for example, inculcate gratitude in themselves.
In so doing, they open the door to gladness.
And the less you take for granted, the more pleasure and joy life will bring you.
If you assume that the good things in your life are normal and to be expected, you diminish the happiness they can bring you.
By contrast, if you train yourself to develop the custom of counting your blessings and being grateful for them, you will fill your life with cheer.
Sure, it can be hard to do.
Like most useful skills, it takes years of practice before it becomes second nature.
This is one reason that coming to church and connecting with others leads to happiness - it ingrains the habits of thankfulness.
People who thank God before each meal, for example, inculcate gratitude in themselves.
In so doing, they open the door to gladness.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
The Secret to Happiness
Gratitude is not an attitude we cultivate well, is it?
Even on Thanksgiving Day, we are more likely to concentrate on the turkey or the television than on giving thanks.
But, perhaps we would think differently about thankfulness if we realized its extraordinary power to improve our lives.
One popular writer has proposed a convincing argument that gratitude is nothing less than the key to happiness.
Dennis Prager writes in Happiness is a Serious Problem: “There is a ‘secret’ to happiness,
and it is gratitude.
All happy people are grateful, and ungrateful people cannot be happy.
We tend to think that it is being unhappy that leads people to complain, but it is truer to say that it is complaining that leads to people becoming unhappy.
Become grateful and you will become a much happier person.”'
Think about it: All happy people are grateful, and ungrateful people cannot be happy.
This is a keen observation, isn’t it?
And, I think it helps explain why the Judeo-Christian tradition places such emphasis on thanking God.
The liturgy is filled with expressions of gratitude.
It is good to give thanks to the Lord, begins the 92nd Psalm.
Why?
Because God needs our gratitude?
No: because we need it.
Even on Thanksgiving Day, we are more likely to concentrate on the turkey or the television than on giving thanks.
But, perhaps we would think differently about thankfulness if we realized its extraordinary power to improve our lives.
One popular writer has proposed a convincing argument that gratitude is nothing less than the key to happiness.
Dennis Prager writes in Happiness is a Serious Problem: “There is a ‘secret’ to happiness,
and it is gratitude.
All happy people are grateful, and ungrateful people cannot be happy.
We tend to think that it is being unhappy that leads people to complain, but it is truer to say that it is complaining that leads to people becoming unhappy.
Become grateful and you will become a much happier person.”'
Think about it: All happy people are grateful, and ungrateful people cannot be happy.
This is a keen observation, isn’t it?
And, I think it helps explain why the Judeo-Christian tradition places such emphasis on thanking God.
The liturgy is filled with expressions of gratitude.
It is good to give thanks to the Lord, begins the 92nd Psalm.
Why?
Because God needs our gratitude?
No: because we need it.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Making Miracles at Thanksgiving
You and I are not good at fixing the international credit markets,
but we can become very good at splinting butterfly wings and filling boxes of food [at your local food pantry] . . . .
So writes Rabbi Marc Gellman in Newsweek. Check out his article on the butterfly effect and how you can begin a year of miracles today with a small act of kindness.
but we can become very good at splinting butterfly wings and filling boxes of food [at your local food pantry] . . . .
So writes Rabbi Marc Gellman in Newsweek. Check out his article on the butterfly effect and how you can begin a year of miracles today with a small act of kindness.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Let Your Congressperson Know What You Value
It is very easy to communicate with your elected Representative.
These people make it even easier. Click here for more info.
These people make it even easier. Click here for more info.
Our Current Health Care System is Flawed to the Bone
So, apparently they are going to vote this weekend.
Lets hope they do not get swayed by the pervasive myth that the US has the best health care system in the world.
We have learned that contrary to what we had believed, no one in the world envys our health care!
The life expectancy rate in our country is tied with Kuwait and Chile –
there are 31 other countries in the world whose people live longer than we do!
An African-American in New Orleans has a shorter life expectancy than the average person in Vietnam or Honduras.
A baby is eleven times more likely to die here than in Singapore!!!
(There but for fortune . . . )
Our health care system and its delivery is wretched by any measure.
But, interestingly, there is one bright spot in the analyses that have been done:
Our population over the age of 65 can expect to live longer than the average of the other industrialized countries.
And, that’s because Americans above age 65 actually have universal health care coverage: Medicare.
Suddenly, a diverse population with pockets of poverty is no longer such a drawback.
Universal health care works!!!
It is a moral issue.
It is a humane issue.
It is about what we value as a society.
Let them know that we value our fellow citizen over corporate profits.
Our existing health care delivery system is flawed to the core.
Band-aids won’t fix it.
Our sick and dying brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers deserve better.
They deserve to know that we as a society care for them in their days of distress.
They deserve to know that we value them for who they are to us – and never consider them discardable and disposable.
Check out the Op-Ed piece in today’s New York Times and let our folks in Washington know what you expect from the health care system in our country.
Lets hope they do not get swayed by the pervasive myth that the US has the best health care system in the world.
We have learned that contrary to what we had believed, no one in the world envys our health care!
The life expectancy rate in our country is tied with Kuwait and Chile –
there are 31 other countries in the world whose people live longer than we do!
An African-American in New Orleans has a shorter life expectancy than the average person in Vietnam or Honduras.
A baby is eleven times more likely to die here than in Singapore!!!
(There but for fortune . . . )
Our health care system and its delivery is wretched by any measure.
But, interestingly, there is one bright spot in the analyses that have been done:
Our population over the age of 65 can expect to live longer than the average of the other industrialized countries.
And, that’s because Americans above age 65 actually have universal health care coverage: Medicare.
Suddenly, a diverse population with pockets of poverty is no longer such a drawback.
Universal health care works!!!
It is a moral issue.
It is a humane issue.
It is about what we value as a society.
Let them know that we value our fellow citizen over corporate profits.
Our existing health care delivery system is flawed to the core.
Band-aids won’t fix it.
Our sick and dying brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers deserve better.
They deserve to know that we as a society care for them in their days of distress.
They deserve to know that we value them for who they are to us – and never consider them discardable and disposable.
Check out the Op-Ed piece in today’s New York Times and let our folks in Washington know what you expect from the health care system in our country.
Remembering and Recalling Our Blessings
Remembering our place in the universal scheme of things and recalling our blessings cultivates and nourishes our soul.
It is so right for us to take time each year to think about thanks giving.
Indeed, thanks giving is so much a part of our Christian faith that we should pay much more attention to it than we do.
No matter what our lives have been, there is something sacred in looking back and taking inventory of things for which we are especially thankful:
for lessons learned, the times shared, the blessings received.
It is so right for us to take time each year to think about thanks giving.
Indeed, thanks giving is so much a part of our Christian faith that we should pay much more attention to it than we do.
No matter what our lives have been, there is something sacred in looking back and taking inventory of things for which we are especially thankful:
for lessons learned, the times shared, the blessings received.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)