Jowett Henry or John? Gratitude Works for All

Today my hub is about gratitude. Most of my followers and usual readers might be wondering what struck me, because my usual topics revolve around materialism and making money from different sources. Well, I think an ode to gratitude was long due, so I just want to take this hub to its completion and stop procrastinating any more. What better day than today and what better moment than now, to start? At least that is what I thought when I sat down to pen (type actually) my thoughts to computer.

When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?

-G.K. Chesterton

"Life without thankfulness is devoid of love and passion. Hope without thankfulness is lacking in fine perception. Faith without thankfulness lacks strength and fortitude. Every virtue divorced from thankfulness is maimed and limps along the spiritual road."

-John Henry Jowett

"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice."

- Meister Eckhart

What do we mean when we talk about gratitude? Is it simply a matter of saying thanks / thank you? Well, I don’t think so. When I say gratitude, it means a deeply heartfelt emotion. When I am experiencing gratefulness for something, I am more or less overcome by the force of the emotion behind the experience.

So, if you ask me about the actual definition of gratitude, I may not be able to put it into a specific set of words. I am sure that this wonderful emotion is experienced in unique ways by each of us.

I have not understood my emotions even remotely yet and am still at a loss to understand why my eyes fill up when I experience gratitude. To be honest, I dislike this peculiar and weird tendency of my eyes to react in such a manner to my emotions. But do you know what I dislike even more?

When I cry with gratitude, the person who is at the receiving end of my teary and emotional gratitude often finds it extremely funny and hilarious. And that is when I get more angry, but thankfully I have not yet faced such a situation with any mortal being except for my husband (who is the only person licensed to get away with laughing at me).

Before I go onto something else, let me tell you about my best friend. She and I have been best friends since childhood and our friendship is going strong even after 25 long years. She resides in India and I am currently living in the Middle East since the last decade or so. Whatever communications we have are via mails / phone/ online chats.

She mailed me last week saying how depressed she was and how pointless her life felt. Before you jump to any conclusions, please allow me to inform you that she does not have any problems in reality. The only reason behind her depression is that her husband does not seem to be displaying his love for her in a manner that she expects of him.

I feel it necessary to tell you about my perspective of her husband at this juncture. He is actually a very loving hubby and a devoted father, but he expresses his love for his wife in subtle ways and that irritates her. Okay back to the point.

When she mailed me complaining about the so-called huge problems in her life and repeatedly said that God had been very unkind to her, I could not help myself from reminding her about this wonderful thing called gratitude.

To be honest, I was actually itching to jolt her out of her imaginary misfortunes and make her see how the majority of mankind is suffering from myriad misfortunes like ill-health, poverty and so much more. But I could not react bluntly to my dear friend who had come running to me with her problems with the expectations of cartloads of compassion and sympathy from my side.

I sat down to write a mail that was filled with heartfelt reassurances in the first 2/3 sentences. Then I gently reminded her of the innumerous people who were dealing with graver problems in their lives.

How does it feel to watch your loved ones die for lack of medical care and you know that you could have saved them if only you had some money? How does it feel when you watch your children die of starvation? How does it feel when you have to deal with disease, death and accidents? Now these are what I call real misfortunes.

After having asked her all of the above questions, I asked her a final question, “Do you feel you are more unfortunate than these people? Do you feel that God has been unkind to you?” And I wrapped up my mail with a conclusion that said, “I am sure your life is more comfortable and highly secure when compared to these desolate folks. Please remind yourself of all these people, each time you begin to complain against God’s unkindness towards you. Please welcome gratitude into your life. Please begin each day with a heartfelt feeling of gratitude to the Almighty, for the reason that he has blessed you with so much happiness. None of us can say that we have no reason to be grateful to God. If we are healthy, then we have to be thankful for that; if we have our loved ones around us, we have to thank God for that. If you cannot find any reason to be thankful to God, please think of the dead and then express gratitude to God that you are still breathing”

Signed,

Your loving friend

End of mail. Click send.

I start and end each of my day with a 5-10 minute conversation with God. I do not use this valuable time to ask for favors; instead I keep busy in expressing a tearful gratitude for all the blessings that God has showered upon me and my family. What about you? How do you feel about gratitude?