Togetherness is the Heart of Gratefulness: Day 11

Together is the Heart of Gratefulness: Day 11.

—21 days of Gratitude: Awakening the Heart

How do we allow our hearts to keep opening? Yesterday, as I sat in front of a group of children many with runny noses and wiggling, I stopped for a moment, and looked more deeply at them. I could see their puppy dog eyes filled with longing, their open smiles, and their bodies pulsing with life like growing plants.

By taking a moment to be present with them, and really see them, I noticed my heart opened softly and gently, as gracefully as a lotus flower opens in the sun.

Being present to what is allows our hearts to open–even with difficult things. Gratitude is the awakening of the heart in the present moment, with the people we are encountering, the situations we are meeting, and with ourselves and all that we are holding and carrying.

In his book, Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer, Brother David Steindl-Rast writes, “When we reach our innermost heart, we reach a realm where we are not only intimately at home with ourselves, but initimately united with others, all others.”

When my husband and I were first married, we lived in a apartment with such thin walls that we could hear the neighbors sneeze. We longed for a home, but we couldn’t afford to buy a house of our own. During this time, we developed a practice that created a sense of home between us.

When one of us was feeling frustrated, we would place a hand on the other’s heart and ask: “Where’s your home?” And then the other would answer, “With you.” This simple practice sustained us through many difficult moments.

As we keep ripening our hearts, to open in gratitude, we discover that in our heart is a togetherness, with God and others.

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Gratitude Journal for Day 11:

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

A quote for further reflection: 

It is through the sense of presence that I come to know whatever I know of the thoughts of God’s heart. “The guiding counsel of God seems to me to be simply the divine Presence,” Martin Buber says, “communicating itself direct to the pure heart.”