Home  Current Events Time out for gratitude
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By Carol Hohle
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Taking a break from a heavy academic schedule, the author ponders ideas in a little book.
It is Thanksgiving week here in America. Thursday will be a holiday for many in my hometown in New England. Friends and family will gather as they have for generations for the harvest season tradition of giving thanks.
At a friend’s house Saturday evening I was asked what I was grateful for this year. I had to pause and think. Gratitude wasn’t on the top of my mind. Thanksgiving felt far away and I was immersed in several academic deadlines. But then, after quickly scanning the highlights of the past few years, an important step of progress came to mind.
I had been learning how to be more present to the immediate moment and to cherish inner stillness. This was big! For years, I focused on the future -- formulating and preparing future plans for work and implementing them. The goal always would be achieved in the future. Consequently, I didn’t pause often enough to love the moment I was in.
A favorite quotation from a favorite author, Mary Baker Eddy, says it best: “We own no past, no future, we possess only now… Faith in divine Love supplies the ever-present help and now, and gives the power to ‘act in the living present.’”
This morning I re-read a little book of Eddy’s quotations, Moments of Gratitude. In about a halfhour I was able to get into a Thanksgiving frame of mind that I’d like to maintain throughout the week. The short pithy ideas spoke to some of the deeper challenges I’ve been experiencing this past year. One idea about the importance of darkness stood out to me especially this morning, “Every luminary in the constellation of human greatness, like the stars, comes out in the darkness to shine with the reflected light of God.” I’m going to ponder this more.
Dear friends, I commend this little book to you. You can find it on amazon.com by clicking here.
I can feel the spirit of gratitude permeating my consciousness and my home. I’m ready to greet my family and friends with more poise and intention. Truly, “Gratitude is the sum total of all the graces of Spirit.”
Many you all have a blessed Thanksgiving. Read more from this blogger at Inspiration House.
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