Gratitude

I am among the 35% of people in this world who live on more than 10 dollars a day. Among the lucky 6% who fit this criteria from my country of origin. I am one individual among the 7.5 billion who are alive today; 7% of the humans to have ever been born, living in an age of unprecedented peace and prosperity.

But gratitude is an emotion that is seldom invoked by rational thought. When I believed in God, my thankfulness was directed at an entity. In awe of that towering ego, every moment of life could be felt as a blessing. And there was an intuitive grasp of the infinite that cannot be found in very large numbers.

Does gratitude require a subject and an object? Or does it emerge from a momentary grasp of that concept we call infinity? When something vast eclipses our suffering. When we find release from the struggle of thought and taste the exuberant freedom of mind.

Look up at the night sky. Let go of the limits you impose on your sense of self; let go of the idea that you have a head. Imagine the time and space that has been traversed by the starlight. Not to reach you. But you are here; not projecting your gaze outwards to an object, but receiving this stream of energy and transforming it into a concept. You are the vessel in which these stars exist in that moment.

If you can connect deeply with your experience in any single moment, you will sense the immense gratitude of being alive.

Next time a scent makes its way into your awareness, close your eyes and breathe deep. Do you feel the pleasantness permeate your consciousness? Can you sense the desire to open your arms and express the emotion that rises in your chest?

 

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