Grateful Attitude: Day 5

Cultivating a Grateful Attitude: Day 5.

—21 Days of Gratitude: Awakening the Heart

List your blessings and you will walk through those gates of thanksgiving and into the fields of joy–Garrison Keillor

Autumn is a time of harvest, a time to recognize and appreciate what has come to fruition in our lives during the year in both external and internal ways. Although, we tend to look ahead, and see what’s next, it is valuable to step back and remember our blessings.

In Keillor’s quote, he invites us to reflect and list our blessings, to allow them to open us up to a grateful attitude in our lives. I would like to take it one step further and invite us to Pray our Blessings. 

The more consciously we keep the Sacred at the heart of our lives, the more our gratitude will grow abundantly. Here we can turn to the psalms for inspiration:

Psalm 118:

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
    his love endures forever.

–read the rest of Psalm 118

Psalm 118:24

This is the day which the LORD has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

***

As we continue to build our practices of gratitude throughout these 21 days, we will cultivate a grateful attitude and awaken another way of being in the world, “one that nurtures the heart and helps us to create a life of meaning and purpose,” as Angeles Arrien writes in her book Living in Gratitude. 

Gratitude Journal for Day 5:

• Pause. Settle into the moment.
• Open your heart in gratitude.
• List 5 or more moments, experiences, or things you are grateful for today.
• Amen.