United Church in Tallahassee

What are you grateful for?

I was in California in October to celebrate the 150^th anniversary of the founding of First Congregational Church, Santa Cruz. On the way to Santa Cruz I stopped in Berkeley for lunch. Walking down Shattuck St. downtown Berkeley, I passed the Gratitude Café and smiled, thinking “How Berkeley!” I walked in and sat down.A smiling Jenny came to my table and handed me a menu and said, What are you grateful for?” Thinking it was a sort of “Hi, how are you” remark, I smiled back, said nothing and opened my menu.

I looked up to see that Jenny was still smiling, waiting for my response. “Love,” I stammered. “I’m grateful for the love of my partner, my friends,” and getting more confident and at ease with Jenny, “and the assurance that I am loved by God.”

As Jenny brought me my order — “I am Generous” guacamole with flax chips, “I am Faithful” Tropical Citrus tea with hibiscus, passion fruit and essential oil of orange and tangerine — I began to think about gratitude as a discipline rather than a response.

Henri Nouwen writes:

Gratitude … goes beyond the “mine” and “thine” and claims the truth that all of life is a pure gift. In the past I always thought of gratitude as a spontaneous response to the awareness of gifts received, but now I realize that gratitude can also be lived as a discipline. The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy.

As we celebrate this season of giving thanks, why not make gratitude a discipline of your life each day? What are you grateful for?