Gratitude


Original DDE™ surrealistic art: “Gratitude” by: rob kistner © 11/20/23

 

W hen I consider giving thanks, so much of what I feel seems laced with a tinge of expectation. I have so much in my life that falls invisible to me in the day to day. I feel, even in my 77th year, that I have much to learn about true thankfulness.

Perhaps growing up in this American land of plenty-plus-more, has dulled my sense of what it means to be mindfully thankful. Yes, I feel happiness at times, but is that thankfulness? I seem always in search of an understanding of that authentic feeling.

There’ve been times, like this past pandemic, that’ve drawn me closer to catching a glimpse of genuine gratitude. I have immense gratitude that my wife’s throat cancer was caught in time to give her hope for a longer life. I am grateful that my doctors caught my brain disease of the white matter in time to help me significantly slow its progression towards dementia.

Life delivers challenges, but I am grateful that my family has the great fortune of being able to seek and receive help and support to face these stumbling blocks. So perhaps what I am most grateful for is the realization that, while I am beginning to understand and feel gratitude, I still have much to learn in this matter — and that I am fortunate to still have the chance to do so.

do I know thankful
too much I take for granted
so much I should not


Original DDE™ surrealistic art: “Family Table”
by: rob kistner © 11/20/23

Happy Thanksgiving

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rob kistner © 2023

Poetry at: dVerse

 



14 thoughts on “Gratitude”

  1. We are so blessed to have all we need to live and survive. We have to be careful we don’t believe we are somehow entitled to all this. It has come with a price! We should be very thankful.
    Well done my friend.

    1. Thank you Dwight. It is easy, when times are dark, to forget the times of good fortune, of love and light. If we allow ourselves to be overrun by the darkness in our life, to the point of bitterness, then we have robbed ourself of the amazing and precious moments of lightness and joy. How sad that is. We must find a way to embrace them, to lock them away in our hearts. Gratitude itself is precious, because it lifts us.

    1. Thank you Björn… 🙂 Unless we close our minds, and shut down our spirit of wonder, we are learning everyday. I am drawn to the familiar feeling of melancholy, so I do not run from the darkness that dances in my life, even as a very young child. Looking back I realize that facing it and naming it, diminished its grip on me. Therefore, gratitude is something I must stay committed to studying mindfully, because I do not want to fall a captive prisoner to anger, bitterness — to despair. When I feel that shadow of darkness become too heavy, I purposely seek focus on the things I have, for which to be grateful. I am a lifelong student of gratitude — I am ?? learning.

  2. I loved this piece. I too, like you have found it hard to grasp the full meaning of being thankful. I often focus so much on my struggles that I lose sight of God’s grace through it all. I think we learn to be more thankful as we get older and face more trials. And like you said, sometimes it’s the chance to learn that we have to be thankful for.

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