Healing Through Gratitude
Preached 11/29/2020 at SouthWest UU in N. Royalton OH
By Rev. Meg Mathieson
How was your Thanksgiving? I think it’s probably safe to assume that most of us didn’t get to celebrate the Thanksgiving that we were hoping for. Thanks a lot, COVID!
And thanks to you for the measures you took to stay safe, to keep your family safe, to mitigate the spread of this disease.
But I’m not talking about COVID today, I’m talking about it’s opposite - healing. This month we have talked about healing, first healing the environment, then healing ourselves and healing our community. Today, let’s look at healing one more time before December brings us a new theme. Let’s look at something that brings healing to us - gratitude.
Thanksgiving is of course meant to be about gratitude, and for the meditation just now I read a poem about gratitude. About how the table is wide - about abundance and how we are all welcome. We all have a place at the table.
The table is of course a visual from Thanksgiving, from what many of us were taught about the first Thanksgiving, about diverse people with diverse backgrounds and beliefs sitting together and sharing food in common. While the story we have been told is inaccurate, the reality was far from peaceful and many of us descend from an ancestry that was horribly violent to the indigenous people of this land - even yet, the story, the longing for this scene - the desire that we have for all of us to sit down and share a wide table, this persists. We want to break bread together, even if we couldn’t this year, even if we can’t today.
The wide table shows up not just in the story of Thanksgiving, but also in the Christian story of Jesus, who literally broke bread with both his friends and his enemy at his last meal. Liberal Christians speak of Jesus’ wide table, that all are welcome - and again, this invocation of diversity, the example of Rabbi, holy teacher Jesus embracing both his friends and his enemies - breaking bread with all sorts of people, this is a story that, like the Thanksgiving story, whether it is historically accurate or not, it expresses something deep in our hearts.
Jesus’ table and the pilgrim’s table. Mythology that has persisted because it means something to us. It speaks to us of abundance - that cornucopia with fresh fruits spilling forth, that heavily-laden table with food of every kind. Abundance. Sustenance, Safety, Security. Enough. Plenty.
When there is plenty, we feel safe, we feel secure enough to embrace the strangers among us, not worrying that they will take the last morsel. Because there is so much abundance, so much for everyone.
And this is what evokes gratitude. Abundance. A recognition that there is abundance. That there is enough, more than enough.
Living with an attitude of abundance and an attitude of gratitude can be a radical world-changing act in this time of global pandemic. Gratitude is powerful, not just as a point of view, but as an action.
Dr. Brene Brown, in her research on what she calls “Wholehearted living” has scientifically found that Gratitude and Joy go hand-in-hand. Want to increase the joy in your life? Focus on gratitude. But gratitude must be practiced, she warns. By way of explanation, Dr. Brown quotes theologian Mary Daly’s wisdom on courage: “You learn to swim by swimming. You learn courage by couraging.” Similarly, you learn gratitude by making it a verb. But actively gratitud-ing.
I sometimes feel guilty for not having a serious practice like a gratitude journal, and then I remember that gratitude is supposed to feel good. Faithfully keeping a practice of gratitude can be done in writing, but only if that feels good to you. Otherwise, your practice can be something simple, like noticing something good that happened each day. Or setting an intention to be grateful each morning. Or taking a moment to feel the love that comes naturally when you call someone to mind who is precious to you.
Dr. Brown suggests a small, simple practice: “ When I’m flooded with fear and scarcity, I try to call forward joy and sufficiency by acknowledging the fear, then transforming it into gratitude. I say this out loud: “I’m feeling vulnerable. That’s okay. I’m so grateful for ____________.”
These joyful practices will immediately benefit you in a multitude of ways.
Scientific studies have shown:
Quaker writer Parker Palmer has said that it is important to find gratitude for the small, simple things. He names these three:
Whatever you are grateful for in your life: Gratitude for family, friends, good company. Good health, good weather! Our mysterious interconnectedness, the astonishing beauty of nature and the universal energy that is life. Grateful for this community and all of the good that our congregation does in the world. Grateful for UU as a movement that will continue doing good in the world long after all of us are gone. We are called to be grateful. We are invited to a wild, extravagant, senseless gratitude.
You see, science has found that our very bodies and minds want us to be filled with gratitude, and they attempt to offer an incentive by rewarding us with endorphins, dopamine, and physical health when we practice holy gratitude. Gratitude is connection. Gratitude is a form of righteous and sublime love. Gratitude is healing.
So I thank you. Really. I am grateful to have the chance to worship with you, here in this virtual space which we make holy by our presence today.
In a few minutes, we will sing “We Give Thanks” and I want that song to be a love song to ourselves. To our dear, beloved community. How can we keep from being grateful?
As we give thanks, imagine that I am meeting you at our shared table. It is a wide table, and is heavily laden with every kind of delicious food in abundance! Look, your favorite is right there! We, you and I, and my family and your family and loved ones, are joined by our whole human family, yes, the table is wide! Everyone is invited and everyone is welcome! This is a communion for the ages!
May we always find a way to be grateful for the abundance that surrounds us. And in our difficulty, in our worries and fears and aches and pains that are also all too real, may we remember that the tiniest seed of gratitude will bloom with an abundance of benefits for all of us. I’ll end now with a poem about the abundance of even the smalles seed of gratitude, this poem is by ~ Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
Gratitude, it happens, needs less room to grow than one might think--
is able to find purchase on even the slenderest of ledges, is able
to seed itself in even the poorest of soils.
Just today, I marveled as a small gratitude took root in the desert of me--
like a juniper tree growing out of red rock.
If I hadn’t felt it myself, I might not have believed it— but it’s true,
one small thankfulness can slip into an arid despair
and with it comes a change in the inner landscape,
the scent of evergreen.
Preached 11/29/2020 at SouthWest UU in N. Royalton OH
By Rev. Meg Mathieson
How was your Thanksgiving? I think it’s probably safe to assume that most of us didn’t get to celebrate the Thanksgiving that we were hoping for. Thanks a lot, COVID!
And thanks to you for the measures you took to stay safe, to keep your family safe, to mitigate the spread of this disease.
But I’m not talking about COVID today, I’m talking about it’s opposite - healing. This month we have talked about healing, first healing the environment, then healing ourselves and healing our community. Today, let’s look at healing one more time before December brings us a new theme. Let’s look at something that brings healing to us - gratitude.
Thanksgiving is of course meant to be about gratitude, and for the meditation just now I read a poem about gratitude. About how the table is wide - about abundance and how we are all welcome. We all have a place at the table.
The table is of course a visual from Thanksgiving, from what many of us were taught about the first Thanksgiving, about diverse people with diverse backgrounds and beliefs sitting together and sharing food in common. While the story we have been told is inaccurate, the reality was far from peaceful and many of us descend from an ancestry that was horribly violent to the indigenous people of this land - even yet, the story, the longing for this scene - the desire that we have for all of us to sit down and share a wide table, this persists. We want to break bread together, even if we couldn’t this year, even if we can’t today.
The wide table shows up not just in the story of Thanksgiving, but also in the Christian story of Jesus, who literally broke bread with both his friends and his enemy at his last meal. Liberal Christians speak of Jesus’ wide table, that all are welcome - and again, this invocation of diversity, the example of Rabbi, holy teacher Jesus embracing both his friends and his enemies - breaking bread with all sorts of people, this is a story that, like the Thanksgiving story, whether it is historically accurate or not, it expresses something deep in our hearts.
Jesus’ table and the pilgrim’s table. Mythology that has persisted because it means something to us. It speaks to us of abundance - that cornucopia with fresh fruits spilling forth, that heavily-laden table with food of every kind. Abundance. Sustenance, Safety, Security. Enough. Plenty.
When there is plenty, we feel safe, we feel secure enough to embrace the strangers among us, not worrying that they will take the last morsel. Because there is so much abundance, so much for everyone.
And this is what evokes gratitude. Abundance. A recognition that there is abundance. That there is enough, more than enough.
Living with an attitude of abundance and an attitude of gratitude can be a radical world-changing act in this time of global pandemic. Gratitude is powerful, not just as a point of view, but as an action.
Dr. Brene Brown, in her research on what she calls “Wholehearted living” has scientifically found that Gratitude and Joy go hand-in-hand. Want to increase the joy in your life? Focus on gratitude. But gratitude must be practiced, she warns. By way of explanation, Dr. Brown quotes theologian Mary Daly’s wisdom on courage: “You learn to swim by swimming. You learn courage by couraging.” Similarly, you learn gratitude by making it a verb. But actively gratitud-ing.
I sometimes feel guilty for not having a serious practice like a gratitude journal, and then I remember that gratitude is supposed to feel good. Faithfully keeping a practice of gratitude can be done in writing, but only if that feels good to you. Otherwise, your practice can be something simple, like noticing something good that happened each day. Or setting an intention to be grateful each morning. Or taking a moment to feel the love that comes naturally when you call someone to mind who is precious to you.
Dr. Brown suggests a small, simple practice: “ When I’m flooded with fear and scarcity, I try to call forward joy and sufficiency by acknowledging the fear, then transforming it into gratitude. I say this out loud: “I’m feeling vulnerable. That’s okay. I’m so grateful for ____________.”
These joyful practices will immediately benefit you in a multitude of ways.
Scientific studies have shown:
- Grateful people experience fewer aches and pains and they report feeling healthier than other people
- Gratitude reduces a multitude of toxic emotions, ranging from envy and resentment to frustration and regret.
- Gratitude increases mental strength and fosters resilience.
Quaker writer Parker Palmer has said that it is important to find gratitude for the small, simple things. He names these three:
- For the ground on which I stand — whether it’s the kind that grows greenery or the kind in which my soul can take root.
- For the people who’ve supported me — from those who know me well and love me nonetheless to strangers who offered help in a moment of need.
- For the natural world, which really does make things pretty — a beauty to which I often turn for solace, healing, inspiration, and peace.
Whatever you are grateful for in your life: Gratitude for family, friends, good company. Good health, good weather! Our mysterious interconnectedness, the astonishing beauty of nature and the universal energy that is life. Grateful for this community and all of the good that our congregation does in the world. Grateful for UU as a movement that will continue doing good in the world long after all of us are gone. We are called to be grateful. We are invited to a wild, extravagant, senseless gratitude.
You see, science has found that our very bodies and minds want us to be filled with gratitude, and they attempt to offer an incentive by rewarding us with endorphins, dopamine, and physical health when we practice holy gratitude. Gratitude is connection. Gratitude is a form of righteous and sublime love. Gratitude is healing.
- Cicero said that “Gratitude is not only the greatest of all the virtues, but it is the parent of all the others.”
- Gandhi said, “May the work of your hands be a sign of gratitude and reverence to the human condition.”
- The Dalai Lama suggests that practicing gratitude is the way to world peace.
So I thank you. Really. I am grateful to have the chance to worship with you, here in this virtual space which we make holy by our presence today.
In a few minutes, we will sing “We Give Thanks” and I want that song to be a love song to ourselves. To our dear, beloved community. How can we keep from being grateful?
As we give thanks, imagine that I am meeting you at our shared table. It is a wide table, and is heavily laden with every kind of delicious food in abundance! Look, your favorite is right there! We, you and I, and my family and your family and loved ones, are joined by our whole human family, yes, the table is wide! Everyone is invited and everyone is welcome! This is a communion for the ages!
May we always find a way to be grateful for the abundance that surrounds us. And in our difficulty, in our worries and fears and aches and pains that are also all too real, may we remember that the tiniest seed of gratitude will bloom with an abundance of benefits for all of us. I’ll end now with a poem about the abundance of even the smalles seed of gratitude, this poem is by ~ Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
Gratitude, it happens, needs less room to grow than one might think--
is able to find purchase on even the slenderest of ledges, is able
to seed itself in even the poorest of soils.
Just today, I marveled as a small gratitude took root in the desert of me--
like a juniper tree growing out of red rock.
If I hadn’t felt it myself, I might not have believed it— but it’s true,
one small thankfulness can slip into an arid despair
and with it comes a change in the inner landscape,
the scent of evergreen.