Not taking the blessings of peace for granted, we offer our perpetual thanksgiving. Every day.
Today is World Gratitude Day. It is also the International Day of Peace. What a harmonic convergence of goodness. It seems only so fitting that both these occasions would make their home on the same spot on our calendar each year. Officially adopted and advanced by the United Nations, both causes affirm hope, and offer meaningful recognition and celebration of the power of individuals to make a difference in their lives and in the world.
In ways not immediately apparent, gratitude and peace fit together seamlessly. Clearly, peace gives rise to gratitude. We must be grateful for any and all conditions of peace, and invest ourselves in their unfolding. Not taking the blessings of peace for granted, we offer our perpetual thanksgiving. Every day.
But how does gratitude bring about peace?
Living gratefully helps us to know and create peace from the inside out. We focus on cultivating emotional, physical and mental states that embody peace, and we become better peacemakers. When we are grateful, we also become more of what the world needs in order to be trustworthy peace-keepers:
- Gratefulness makes us aware that life is a gift, and that treasuring and protecting this gift is paramount. We savor and steward the large and the small things alike, and take a stand on behalf of what matters. Peace matters.
- Grateful people experience themselves as interconnected with all others, and recognize our inextricability as a global family living on this Earth. What is done to one, is done to all…
- When we are grateful, “less is more” to us; we are more content and experience sufficiency more readily. This makes us less likely to contribute to habits of consumption that amass and deplete precious resources, and give rise to conflict.
- Gratefulness engenders love, compassion, and respect. It shapes how we relate to each other, and compels us toward kindness and generosity…towards those things that nurture peace. Grateful people are moved by love toward justice.
In the spirit of peace and gratitude, we offer you the gift of “A Grateful Day.” This beautiful, updated 5-minute video meditation by Brother David connects us to the heart of what matters, every day. Please enjoy this gift and pass it on…
More information and resources about A Grateful Day…
What makes your day a Grateful Day? Please share your reflections below…