Powem
oh your smiling face
zzzts like a spear
into my chest
strikes my heart
stretches it
wide as a smile
I feel it
in my toes
I’m on deadline for a local magazine piece on the broad topic of gratitude. Instead of writing it, I’m here blogging.
I Googled the word “gratitude” and the search engine came back with 25,800,000 hits.
That was fun, wading through that.
For more fun I Googled the phrase “gratitude quotes” and got a manageable 1.5 million hits.
Here’s one:
“Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful.”
(Buddha)
I interviewed a local pastor who went on a mission trip to India this summer.
“The problem I see in our country,” he said, “is that thanksgiving is kind of an intellectual exercise. It doesn’t hit my heart until I put myself into an area where there is need, and I see there are people just like me who don’t have the blessings I have. Gratitude reaches my heart then, being in the trenches. I have nothing to complain about now.”
I’m grateful today that I get to write about gratitude, which means I’m thinking about it a lot and pondering my own attitude to see where I fall short. I’ve learned a little, I’m not sick, like Buddha said, and so I am thankful.
Chris Alba © 2009
oh your smiling face
zzzts like a spear
into my chest
strikes my heart
stretches it
wide as a smile
I feel it
in my toes
I’m on deadline for a local magazine piece on the broad topic of gratitude. Instead of writing it, I’m here blogging.
I Googled the word “gratitude” and the search engine came back with 25,800,000 hits.
That was fun, wading through that.
For more fun I Googled the phrase “gratitude quotes” and got a manageable 1.5 million hits.
Here’s one:
“Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful.”
(Buddha)
I interviewed a local pastor who went on a mission trip to India this summer.
“The problem I see in our country,” he said, “is that thanksgiving is kind of an intellectual exercise. It doesn’t hit my heart until I put myself into an area where there is need, and I see there are people just like me who don’t have the blessings I have. Gratitude reaches my heart then, being in the trenches. I have nothing to complain about now.”
I’m grateful today that I get to write about gratitude, which means I’m thinking about it a lot and pondering my own attitude to see where I fall short. I’ve learned a little, I’m not sick, like Buddha said, and so I am thankful.
Chris Alba © 2009
21 comments:
I feel exactly the same, and G.L.A.D. See my blog, healthy and ready to learn something today.
so much to be thankful for...we had an amazing weekend on our friends farm...it breathed simplicity into my lungs...we can complicate our life so much, we fail to see all we have been provided. grateful.
Sadly, it takes seeing someone less fortunate than I am to remember my blessing too. Thanks for the reminder...and I'm not sick today either! Amen!
Gratitude is a very broad subject.
Meet My Mates #3 - Quilly
Couple days ago I posted on Gratitude...Maybe it's that "November-Thanksgiving" thing?
Anyway, re. your POWEM...In church several years ago (I played violin there at the time) I sat next to the really golden-voiced" cantor, we noticed her husband enter the far door (seemed like a half mile away). And she whispered to me, "Every time I see him walk into a room, my toes tingle."
I still remember thinking, "HOW sweet!"
So you're not the only one to "...feel it in my toes!!"
PEACE
What an appropriate time to think about gratitude.
And you are approaching this writing task with a great attitude.
Enough time wasting. Go write the article.
Gratitude makes the heart grow younger, lighter, more loving.
November is gratitude month and Alcoholics Anonymous here always has an annual Gratitude dinner. This year it's November 20th and we have tickets. It will be so much fun. I'm looking forward to it.
PG
Beautifully shared.
I wrote about Gratitude today too.
Seems to be in the air these days;)
Thank you for sharing.
a manageable 1.5 mil hits, chris, have you got a fever?????? but there's your gratitude right there, turning the impossible to manageable. hmmmm, anyway, good luck and happy writing!
Show me a truly grateful person and I will show you one who has passed through fire and doesn't have a care for the scars left from the behind.
gratitude is such an intoxicating attitude... but by nature my mind and emotions fight gratitude when it appears on my horizon. Thanks for your aid in today's fight :-)
I would pronounce the G in Bologna hard as well on principle. I have studied more than five languages, and speak none fluently, so I feel I have the right to mispronounce as I please!
When I traveled to other places with so much poverty, I felt selfish. Everyone should have the opportunity to see how more than half the world lives. Or ekes out a living, I should say.
Beautiful... and if I cannot find gratitude within, now I know that googling will result in so much gratitude I'll be unable to contain it in a short walk.
I love what the pastor said, we have to feel it in our hearts and it rarely shows itself in our comparisons of what we have and don't have...it comes from our hearts and our love for others and our own amazing ability to just stop and notice. Chris this is great; will you post this piece once you write it? Hope to read it!
Love
Gabi
Some days your heart is just filled to the brim with joy and gratitude for seemingly no reason. Others the only thing you can say is state the obvious that we take for granted.
and certainly a good thing to reflect on more than once a year!
There is so much to be grateful for. So many things come to mind, some as small as late roses in bloom or the rain falling as I type this.
I am feeling thankful for just knowing you Chris! You are such a creative creature with words.. so when is your book of poetry going to be published? Hugs!!!
A message that can't be stated too often, I feel
No books of poetry on the horizon, but still I enter my manscript on a regular basis to small press competitions just to stay in the game. I need to send invididual poems out to the journals, but that's time consuming and I'm not in that mindset yet.
Thank you for all your comments! Maybe I'll post the final project later. I made my deadline, by the way. Works well under pressure, this lady.
Chris A
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