Gratitude

Our topic tonight was gratitude. Each of us had something different to share. Some expressed a gratefulness for sobriety, some for service, and some for fellowship. I looked up what others out there in the world have said about gratitude and thought to share them too. Perhaps this will inspire you, my dear friends, to share your words on gratitude.

Peace

Lisa

Albert Schweitzer:

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.

Alfred Painter:

Saying thank you is more than good manners. It is good spirituality.

Brother David Steindl-Rast :

Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy -- because we will always want to have something else or something more.

Buddha:

Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful.

Cicero:

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.

Denis Waitley:

Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude.

Edward Gibbon:

Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive.

Eric Hoffer:

The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.

H. U. Westermayer:

The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving.

Henry Ward Beecher:

Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.

John F. Kennedy:

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.

Leroy [Satchel] Paige:

[D]on't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines.

New York Post, October 4, 1959


Marcel Proust:

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.

Margaret Cousins:

Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary.

Meister Eckhart:

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice.

Melodie Beattie:

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity.... It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.

Rabindranath Tagore:

Power takes as ingratitude the writhing of its victims.

Ralph Waldo Emerson:

I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.


Thomas Erskine:

In the New Testament, religion is grace and ethics is gratitude.

William James:

The deepest craving of human nature is the need to be appreciated.

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Life is good!

Gratitude

Nice post, thanks! love the quotes too- 'taking nothing for granted'- jumped out

at me today. Being grateful for the most basic things- and some of those that

do not come to mind as readily. It is easy for me to get caught in routine when considering gratitude. Beyond my normal sphere- vision, hearing, and onward.

Thinking on things outside the box (of my life) living in a country with our

rights and freedoms-in this day and age of amazing medicine and technology.

       The plight of others like those flooded out so badly along the Mississippi.

reminded me of a friends cautionary remark vis-a vis materialism, "You can only sit in one chair at a time" and those who no longer even have that. There were days when I didn't- food, shelter, clothes, etc. Today Iam blessed- and although that could change- Today Iam blessed in so many ways... Nia

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Attitude of Gratitude

Nice post Lisa. My experience was similar to Nia's  'taking nothing for granted'- jumped out at me today".

Tinkertoys

Nia and C3H8 picked up on the "Take nothing for granted" bit. A good phrase to pry into. OK, we do take a lot for granted. Another way to put this is we have "faith" in certain things. 
     We (the royal we - as in americans) have faith in or assume a lot. Think about that the next time you stop at an stop sign, pay a bill, cross the street or go to sleep.  You expect others to do the same, the company will credit your account, nobody will run you over and you will wake up in the morning.
     When some of these don't happen the way we assume they will, we get perturbed. When other of these happen we take a dirt nap.
    Some of us here have learned the hard way to assume nothing. Often that learning took decades of stupid stunts and insane ideas. If we were lucky (no skill involved in roulette) we held off the reaper and long term prison and have gotten to the point where we can appreciate a good portion of our time left here.
     The main point of this babble - the ability to appreciate these things now was not through my doing. It was started with the help of those who came before me and only given in full measure by His Grace. I did not do one single thing to earn it. Given to me in spite of me and not because of me. Totally undeserved.
    Yeah - I am grateful for the continuing chance to appreciate this life. All things great and small. But I'll bet you it would only take one drink to ruin it all. I am grateful for the God given ability to make that decision instead of having to drink it...

Take care my friends,
Dennis

OBTW - The title just sounded like fun, the meeting Sunday was the best yet and hairball muppets make good moderators.

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Mistaking life on life's terms

i prefer Lincoln Logs

Hi folks,
Thanks for letting moderate or chair or referee or whatever ya wanna call it on Sunday. I may be a hairball, but since i've learned to not lick myself [at least in public - hey, it's progress, not perfection], i don't have hairballs.

BTW, i don't know if i'll be at the meeting 'tween the 6th and the 25th ... Got plans! i getta go play in the woods! For almost 3 weeks of July! All by myself, even!  i love the forests of Washington state, and, other than a few bears, one or two cougs, and some of the snoopier skunks, the forests love me! Solitude in the boonies allows me to get centered, a necessity for living downtown in what many consider to be the meth capitol of the pacific northwest.
i also have the joy of hitting some of my favorite meetings in the Greater Cascade Loop Area of WNIRNA, and District 12 of AA's Area 92. Small town meetings are da bomb!
There's a sense of community in these meetings that i try to create in every other meeting i attend ... it's that "attraction rather than promotion" thing i'm greatful for ... Some of the nuggets i know get a little miffed with me for acting like i own a meeting, but i do! Think about it for a minute ...
“I am responsible . . .
When anyone, anywhere, reaches out for help,
I want the hand of A.A. always to be there.
And for that: I am responsible.”
Hey, if i'm "responsible," i'm going to act responsible. If some folks wanna confuse that with ownership, so be it. Besides, when i first came to the rooms, i found out that i wasn't responsibile for the disease, but i'm totally responsible for my recovery. What a huge load of shame off my back! i'm greatful for that today, and i try to show that gratitude by reaching out to a newcomer at every opportunity.
Okay, so i'm not so good at that on-line, but show up at my home group  [The Way Out Group, District 2, http://area92aa.org/meetings/index.php] sometime and you'll see what i mean. i've been to over a thousand meetings in that one room, so yes, it's home! That ain't bragging, i am just one sick addict, so i go to lots of meetings.

Gratitude? i'm grateful for much today! From the high school counselor who suggested i might enjoy the spartan life of the Army, to the Marine Recon patrol and the Navy Corpsman with them who saved my life during my 1st deployment, to being a poor man in the richest nation on the planet, thus living better than the vast majority of the world's population, to all of the instructors, counselors, mentors, and sponsors who've given me little pieces of themselves throughout the years, to the cops who called me on my BS and hit me with the DUI that eventually ended my last relapse, to the lovely lovelife for starting this group, to the God of my understanding who by His Grace through Christ's sacrifice has brought me to and through far more than these things, to the recovery Fellowships that encouraged me to believe that God could forgive my insanity and restore my sanity ... the list could go on ad infinitum.

Today when i suffer from ingratitude,
i know it's only because i've closed my eyes to reality.

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You've gotta be tough to be named after a Muppet

Erector sets

Erector sets - high tech 50s toys are pretty cool too (still around today). I didn't mean to imply anything derogatory about hairball muppets. Enjoy the world up there - spent a fair amount of time in the Olympics... and around Mt Baker. I wonder - was there is a 12 step group for the hairball thing? I'd like to send a few of my cats...
I'm grateful for the fact we can have fun at this...
Dennis

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Mistaking life on life's terms