The Practice of Gratitude - Lent 2023: Day 32

I wake up - I'm feeling fine. No ailments - no dolegliwości (splendid Polish word there, as in co Ci dolega?). Springing out of bed, I express conscious gratitude for my ailment-free state. No need for elaborate ritual. No need to prostrate myself before the Omnipotence of God the Father. Just a simple, sincere thought - not even a thought - an awareness of being in the state of gratitude. It has to be real, though - not going through the motions. The essence of prayer, without its form. A feeling of being plugged into the Purpose, the Grand Intention of the Universe.

The sceptic might well ask - "Michael, if were you to cease feeling gratitude for something that you enjoy (due to genetic predisposition, healthy diet and exercise) - would you fall ill as a result?

In a Pascal's wager kind of a way, I wouldn't want to risk it. But in any case; it is not something I do, it's something I feel. Can you stop feeling joy on a sunny spring morning? Feeling gratitude for one's health doesn't hurt, but I do believe it is an integral part of staying healthy.

Left: Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) argued that a rational person should live as though God exists and seek to believe in God. If God does not exist, such a person will have only a finite loss (some pleasures, luxury, etc.), whereas if God does exist, they stand to receive infinite gains (as represented by eternity in Heaven) and avoid infinite losses (an eternity in Hell).

Those who believe in a deterministic universe might say that everything has already been decided in the minutest detail, and that whether or not you feel gratitude is entirely irrelevant to our life's journey and its ultimate outcome. I disagree with this proposition, considering that we have more will than the determinists give credit for - metaphysical will, that we can use to bend outcomes our way.

If there is a ritual, it's while brushing my teeth. A quick, though heartfelt, thank-you God for all I have, and a supplication for health for family and friends. Two or three times a day. If, at the end of brushing my teeth, I put down the brush and realise I have not practiced gratitude, I pick it up again and continue brushing - this time with feeling.

Gratitude should also be felt whenever one experiences a moment of elation, simple everyday moments. Turning the front-door key when it's cold and dark outside and warm and bright inside. Gazing up at a starry night. The first slurp of an excellent wine. The feeling of connectedness with other humans.

Taking good fortune for granted, becoming complacent of one's privileges in life, does, I feel, draw down the karma. The person who contemplates not  (człowiek, który się nie zastanawia) has a harder time in life, buffeted by events they cannot explain, events that seemingly have no cause.

Intuition, which I am increasingly inclined to see as hints, instructions, suggestions, popping into your stream of consciousness in a one-way manner (rather than the dialogue that is prayer), is also something to be grateful for. Being aware of those intuition moments means that you are working together with the Purpose, and you are moving towards the Purpose.

Lent 2022: Day 32
The Search for Perfection

Lent 2021: Day 32
Meditation

Lent 2020: Day 32
Divine Intervention

Coincidence corner - two blog-post titles of the three above happen to be lines from the Roxy Music song, Mother of Pearl. So here it is...