Gratitude Is Not A Practice

 

Gratitude is not a spiritual practice. It is a subtle thread of fire that binds your pulse, through sensations of sweetness, to the heart of God. Gratitude is not something you need to "do." Just follow one faint breath of thanks until you dissolve. Into what? There is no word for the answer. You must find out for yourself, with the quietest kind of courage. Be grateful for the least most insignificant blessing: the last petal on the autumn rose, a lock of golden fur from the little dog who died, a tear for no reason, the sound of a hummingbird on a Winter afternoon. You'll spiral down a dark stairwell to the wine cellar, where Jesus has been aging his love in a cask of delicate bones. Don't look for his face. The grape was crushed long ago. Meet him in the pure bouquet of silence, the hollow of not knowing. This is the poverty that will make you rich. The secret? In the smallest is the vast. An atom filled with stars. The flavor of God in a sip of wine, a morsel of bread. You have everything, my friend, absolutely everything, in one faint breath of thanks.