In the US, and elsewhere, we recently celebrated Thanksgiving. It is a time to reflect and rejoice in what we have - family, friends, nourishment, support, shelter, and so on. It is also a time to share what we have with others.
For us, it is especially a time to celebrate the partnership that has brought this blog to life and carried on our wish practice through books, talks, dreams, and plans. In that spirit, we would like to offer a few more thoughts on gratitude.
We see gratitude as open-ended, like when you see a neighbor and you smile at them, and they smile back. There is no obligation, only a warm feeling of connection with another person. Too often in our society, we see gratitude reduced to a “transaction”; someone gives a gift and the recipient has to thank them.
Openness is important to us, like walking along and hearing the ocean, smelling the scent of a beach rose, and feeling gratitude well up inside. For us, this is the key, the very source of what makes wishes come true. It’s filling ourselves up with gratitude for our very lives, our partnership, the work we do, the language we love to use, the connections these bring us, and so much more.
If only we could nurture the attitude that we are all sharing the gifts we have received, rather than any sense of benefactor/beneficiary relationships, like the sunflower and bee in Margie’s photo. Let us make a wish that the day will come when that attitude is pervasive in our world.
In the meantime, we wish you the same deep and abiding sense of gratitude that we share for each other and all that we have been able to create together.
Next week, our post will be brought to you by the letter “w” for why. Think in the vane of “why wish” and “what is your ‘why'?”
Until then,
Peace and All Good
Margie and Barbara
The Wish Mavens
Photo Credit
The photo featured in this post was taken by (and is copyrighted by) Margaret A. Herrick.