Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day. While most of North America finds reason to feel grateful on this day, everyone the whole world over can work on having an attitude of gratitude on this day…as well as every day. So much of having an attitude of gratitude involves simply training ourselves to feel gratitude and to see the good in our lives on a regular basis-rather than the opposite. Many of us have trained ourselves to complain about what we don’t have or don’t get -the bounty we don’t receive-and to then feel anything but gratitude. (We feel resentment and anger instead).
I’ve said this before, but I was taught that a prayer of gratitude is the most powerful prayer of all…more powerful than any petitionary prayer or any other type of prayer you can think of. I always think it’s interesting that in Judaism we are taught to say 100 blessings a day.
In the Jewish tradition, the first prayer we offer each morning is one of gratitude for our soul being returned to our body after sleep and for all the parts of our body working. Everyone can at least thank God for the fact that their openings are open and their closed places are closed…as the Jewish prayer is translated…and that their soul has been returned to their body for another day of life…that they haven’t died in the night.
All of these blessings really are times when we “bless” God by saying thank you…thanks for returning my soul to my body and for making sure everything in my body works today. Thanks for making me a woman or a man. Thanks for giving me hands to use in service to God. Thanks for the fruit of the earth. Thanks for bringing me to this season. For or anything you can think of, there is a blessing in Judaism. And the blessing always is offered in the same manner: Blessed are you, God, for whatever it is…We bless God-as if God needs blessings. The blessing provides a way of constantly having an attitude of gratitude, of remembering the source of goodness by offering gratitude…of giving back…of sharing.
We all can take this idea of gratitude farther and offer gratitude to others. We can thank others for what they do for us…and then we can bless them. We all have the ability to bless each other. We can say, “I’m so grateful that you will soon be blessed with a new job, just like the one I know will be coming my way. I can feel it coming to you soon. I can see it!” Or, “I bless you with abundance and prosperity and the fulfillment that comes with a new job that allows you to be of service and use your talents well.”
If you have any doubt about why you should develop an attitude of gratitude, here’s a story to help you understand how the energy of gratitude really works. I love this story, which is based upon a teaching by Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, about how gratitude works. I may have told it before, but it’s worth retelling: There are two farmers who meet on the road and they begin talking. The first one says to the second one, “So, how’s life?” The second one replies, “Not so great. My wife is sick. My crops haven’t been growing so well. My cattle are a bit off their feed and don’t look at fat as usual. In general, things aren’t going so well for me this year. I’d have to say life is pretty bad.”
As it happens, God is eavesdropping on this conversation, and he says to himself (but directed toward the second farmer), “You think things aren’t going well now…You think life is bad now? Just wait. I’ll show you what a bad life really looks like.”
Then the second farmer turns to the first farmer and asks him the same question: “How’s life?” And the first farmer replies, “You know, I can’t complain. My wife is great. My crops look super this year, and my cattle are fat as ever. In general, things are running smoothly and going really well. Life is good.”
God, who is still listening, smiles and says, “You think life is good now, just wait. I’ll show you what a good life really looks like.”
This story speaks directly to the benefits of developing an attitude of gratitude. When we say we are grateful and we see the good in our lives, we open ourselves to receiving more good.
