Gratitude

When not clouded over by our thought-forms, our internal yikkety-yak by which we define ourselves into some existential ditch and sit there miserable in our being saying our world is way too narrow, when not living wrapped in the cotton wad of a snug little world we have created for security, when not clinging to the eye-cons of religious and spiritual symbolism, when not wallowing in the pseudo-clarity of our rationalistic minds, when opening to bare naked awareness, we find we live as an embodying of a magnificent and mysterious cosmos that moves in rhythm with the beating of our hearts -- our hearts of love and gratitude.

The 1828 Webster's Dictionary has a deeply beautiful definition of gratitude:

GRAT''ITUDE, n. [L. gratitudo, from gratus, pleasing. See Grace.]

An emotion of the heart, excited by a favor or benefit received; a sentiment of kindness or good will towards a benefactor; thankfulness. Gratitude is an agreeable emotion, consisting in or accompanied with good will to a benefactor,and a disposition to make a suitable return of benefits or services, or when no return can be made, with a desire to see the benefactor prosperous and happy. Gratitude is a virtue of the highest excellence, as it implies a feeling and generous heart, and a proper sense of duty.

The love of God is the sublimest gratitude.

(Compare that with today's dictionary definition: "the state of being grateful." In our becoming so modishly post-modern, we have lost something in the translation, perhaps our souls.)

Given the 1828 definition, here are some questions to con-side-r (sit side-by-side with) at all levels of your being -- the personal, social, ecological, cosmological. Their answers define your existence.

• Do you feel it (gratitude)?
• Do you feel it in your heart?
• What is the favor or benefit you feel you have received and are receiving?
• Who or what is your benefactor, the giver of these goodies?
• How do you express thankfulness toward all your benefactors?

I greatly appreciate this part of the definition, given our current shift in the American mood: Gratitude is a virtue of the highest excellence, as it implies a feeling and generous heart, and a proper sense of duty.