In this time of stress and turmoil, I often feel like we are heading for the apocalypse, or perhaps the ten plagues are being revisited on us in a new, modern, more insidious form. As we approach Thanksgiving, I’m finding it difficult to find things to be thankful for, but that shouldn’t be so hard. I have my life, my breath, my family – all of which are especially precious amid the threats of the world as we know it imploding from disease, political strife, and environmental catastrophe. When I am seeking inspiration, I often turn to the words of Jalaladdin Rumi, the 13th century Persian Sufi Mystic. Here is what he wrote about gratitude:
“Be grateful for your life, every detail of it, and your face will come to shine like a sun, and everyone who sees it will be made glad and peaceful. Persist in gratitude, and you will slowly become one with the Sun of Love, and Love will shine through you its all-healing joy. The path of gratitude is not for children; it is path of tender heroes, of the heroes of tenderness who, whatever happens, keep burning on the altar of their hearts the flame of adoration.”