No such thing

Julia ♦ August 27, 2020 ♦ 6 Comments

Several sources tell me that deep pink roses represent gratitude. Yorktown, June 2005

“There is no such thing as gratitude unexpressed. If it is unexpressed, it is plain, old-fashioned ingratitude.”  — Robert Brault

One of the great blessings to come from this blog has been the ongoing task of reading many wise and inspiring words from all sorts of people, all over the world, from the earliest recorded eras up through now.  For every quote that shows up here, I would estimate that I have bookmarked or noted online dozens (maybe hundreds) of others, for which I haven’t had time to find a matching photo.  Suffice it to say that I have 20-30 books full of post-it flags.

Sometimes, a quote will hit me hard with the twin awareness of how true it is, and how much I personally need to hear it.  This quote today is one that really made me think.  I enjoy saying “thank you,” and I do it a lot.  But I know there are countless people and blessings about which I have never even taken the time to express my appreciation.

So, without further ado, I want to thank everyone who is reading these words, right now.  Wherever you are, whatever your circumstances, I’m grateful for connecting with you through this online opportunity.  I’m grateful for all the supportive friendliness of the blogging community, and many non-blogging friends who visit here to encourage and bless us during this difficult time.

I’m so thankful for the gift of technology, and the mind-boggling volume of information that is readily available at our fingertips.  Yes, there is a lot of misinformation, commercial misuse, and even dangerously predatory behavior in cyberspace.  But I honestly believe the good things that happen online outweigh the bad, and I’m determined to do what I can to raise that ratio.

But beyond that, I think of all the things I depend on daily, that I rarely think to feel grateful for.  The electricity that keeps this computer going.  The air conditioning that just kicked on automatically, without my having to adjust it or even feel uncomfortably hot.  The food I have eaten today and will eat tomorrow.  On and on I could go — and so could you.

Try this: think of someone or something  you enjoy so often that you scarcely notice how it blesses your life.  Then, make it a point, for a week or a month or always, to pause and express your gratitude.  I’ve found that feeling grateful is a contagious practice; the more I express my gratitude, the more grateful I feel, and the more others will join me in agreeing that we have so many reasons to rejoice.  If you feel moved to so do, please share some of the things you are grateful for today, in the comments below.  It might remind us of something we hadn’t thought to be happy about.

This post was first published seven years ago today, but need it now even more than I did then. The original post, comments and photo are linked, along with two other related posts, below. These links to related posts, and their thumbnail photos, do not appear in the blog feed; they are only visible when viewing the individual posts by clicking on each one. I have no idea why, nor do I know how they choose the related posts. That’s just the way WordPress does things.