Irenic Thoughts

Irenic. The word means peaceful. This web log (or blog) exists to create an ongoing, and hopefully peaceful, series of comments on the life of King of Peace Episcopal Church. This is not a closed community. You are highly encouraged to comment on any post or to send your own posts.

2/14/2008

To be grateful

To be grateful for the good things that happen in our lives is easy, but to be grateful for all our lives—the good as well as the bad, the moments of joy as well as the moments of sorrow, the successes as well as the failures, the rewards as well as the rejections—that requires hard spiritual work. Still, we are only grateful people when we can say thank you to all that has brought us to the present moment.

As long as we keep dividing our lives between events and people we would like to remember and those we would rather forget, we cannot claim the fullness of our beings as a gift of God to be grateful for.
-Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey

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1 Comments:

  • At 2/14/2008 3:40 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Nouwen. He always gets to the heart of our hearts - and souls. I think we often confuse gratitude with happiness. I am grateful for all of my life, but that doesn't mean it has always been, nor will always be, happy. My father taught me that at a very young age.

    Today, at this moment, I am grateful. And, at this moment I am happy.

    Happy Valentine's Day All -
    Maggie

     

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