Making the Connection - Katie

          Thanksgiving is the mandatory annual gratitude check and inventory for most of us, and no matter how much we want to employ a gratitude attitude all year long, there is usually room for improvement. It must be part of the human condition to resist appreciating the abundance that surrounds most of us reading this newsletter due simply to its constancy in our lives. The friend or spouse who drops everything to listen, the son or daughter who calls just to chat, the barista who knows our coffee order and delivers it with a smile, the new sweater hanging in the closet or thank you note someone took time to write, the sun on our face or the rain on the roof, the little daily kindnesses that may come our way.

          I have tried to keep a gratitude journal for years – writing down three things every night I’m grateful for that day. Every once in a blue moon I get on a roll, and then forget about it for several months. But when I go back and read my entries I’m always struck by the moments I’d already forgotten and wonder about the many I never captured at all. Thanks to one entry, I can tell you that on May 27th while driving from Bryce Canyon to Zion National Park we missed our turn and drove twenty minutes out of our way before any of the six of us noticed, so engrossed were we in the company and the scenery. Ah, yes, the journey, not the destination, a metaphor for life.

          I heard recently about an elderly woman of faith who regularly enjoys involvement in her church community. When they had a talk about miracles, she was so distraught that she had never experienced one, she couldn't face coming back for the completion of the discussion the following week. Perhaps, like my own previous disposition, she has a very narrow view of miracles. It took me years to recognize that miracles are best understood when imagined within the full spectrum of all life has to offer, a veritable kaleidoscope of possibilities. Like Thick Nhat Hahn said, “The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green earth, dwelling deeply in the present moment and feeling truly alive.” This is where gratitude and miracles intertwine.

The more we can find to be grateful for, the more miraculous life seems. Though I have found it does help to write it down. (Katie)