Serene Gratitude— At West End Gallery
To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
All pray in their distress;
And to these virtues of delight
Return their thankfulness.
–William Blake, The Divine Image in Songs of Innocence (1790)
It’s Thanksgiving Week. As in the past, I am going to focus on gratitude this week.
And why not? As the orator Cicero famously proclaimed that “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.“
Who am I to argue with that?
I might be wrong here but one thing I have observed is the relativity of one’s gratitude to the hardships endured. It seems that it is ‘the greater the woes the greater the thanks.‘
It sure feels that way for me this particular year. This year has been one in which not a lot has gone the way I had hoped in so many ways. Even so, I feel extremely thankful for so many things and people.
Maybe more so than in those years when everything has gone my way.
I think in the better years, we tend to overlook the importance of the part that others play in our lives. It’s easier then to see ourselves as being solely self-reliant and independent entities.
But when times are a bit tougher and things seem to be going awry, we recognize how dependent we truly are on the assistance and support of others.
In seeing others reach out in hard times, willing to take on some of that hardship in order to give aid and comfort, it becomes clear that the triumphs that we once felt were ours alone were always the result of the aid from others.
In good times, we are lifted up by others. In bad times, we are pulled up by others.
And, man, am I grateful for both.
Now get the hell out of here before I change my mind.
Sorry– I couldn’t resist that exit line.
As they say: A leopard doesn’t change its spots.
Even a grateful leopard.
Redtree Times 