I am thankful for perfect
strangers coming up to me and reminding me that God
is indeed in every person you meet. Some of them even
have wonderful messages that help you get in touch with
your self and your environment. They can turn up in
the stranges places, in line to a haunted house, a gas
station, or at the supermarket. God is everywhere, but
as we get older we grow a little colder, distrustful,
and boring.
How do we recapture the innocence
we all had when we were younger without appearing foolish
or getting hurt?
natalia
11/26/02
I am thankful that when
God called my daughter who was 29 years old home he
allowed her to have two beautiful children that we have
been able to watch grow into beautiful adults. Our God
is very gracious.
I'm a young mom, of 3.
About a month ago I was invited to church, I went and
been going ever since. Pretty good for someone who hasnt
been to church in 13 yrs.
I'm a very shy person, and I just felt this need to
find something in my life. I'm beginning to think its
God I've been missing. So Ii'm thankful for the day
I said yes to go to church. Even though we might not
agree on everything, we are all learning to love God
the same, as well as our children.
So that's what I'm thankful for right now in my life.
11/25/02
Your Living
Expectantly meditation reminded me of the small
Episcopal church in North Carolina that agreed for an
artist who had just returned from studying the fresco
technique in Italy to paint a fresco in their sanctuary.
When he arrived and met the priest at the church, the
priest greeted huim by saying I have been looking forward
to your coming with great expectation. As they talked
about the subject of the fresco they decided to tie
the name of the church (St. Mary's) to the sense of
expectation and the artist painted a wonderful portrait
of the very pregnant Mary "expecting" Jesus!
As we enter Advent this fresco always frames my meditations
on the coming birth of the Christ-child and helps me
to "live expectantly."
WE are the music-makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems. Arthur O'Shaughnessy
Thank you for your website.
It is wonderfully positive and calming.
This is a beautiful web site, thank you.
I did a search for a Samuel Johnson quote about how
a happy home is the ultimate result of ambition and
came to your site. It's quite a gem!!
05/30/02
To live a life of gratitude
is to open our eyes to the countless ways in which we
are supported by the world around us. Such a life provides
less space for our suffering because our attention is
more balanced. We are more often occupied with noticing
what we are given, thanking those who have helped us,
and repaying the world in some concrete way for what
we are receiving.
Source: Naikan: Gratitude,
Grace & the Japanese Art of Self-Reflection
Author: Gregg Krech, 2002
Submitted by: Mie
04/16/2002
It's taken me 48 years to finally figure
out who and what I am.
Now I will take my remaining time and do my best to
fully evolve.
Rabbi
02/28/2002
After years of anxiety, and fear, then
having a difficult pregnancy, delivery, and infant stay
in the hospital, I am finally after 6 months coming
to realize that I wasn't being punished, that I don't
have a black cloud hanging over me, and I don't have
to hate myself because I think God does. I can actually
love myself, be proud of myself, in spite of not being
perfect. Thanks to quotes like the ones on this web-site,
I am now on a whole new path. One unfamiliar, but exciting.
Dear Be Thankful,
A few years ago I read a small book called "Random
Acts of Kindness" and I enjoyed it very much
but it was one of those books that kind of sits in the
back of your mind so I didn't think too about it but
every now and again I would be moved to do some random
thing that would make someone smile for no reason other
than because I could.
Quite recently I was at work waiting
tables in a small cafe on Nantucket island the people
I worked with were very young in the 18 to 25 range
one of them being my best friend.
Out of the blue I decided to get everyone
involved in a "random act of kindness" so
we all got together and said that we would pick out
a stranger whom we had to give a hug and see if we could
make them smile and if they asked we could tell them
what we were doing with the understanding that they
in turn must then give a stranger a hug and try to make
them smile.
Well we were met with everything from
NO to the best of all when my best friend asked this
woman just walking down the sidewalk if he could have
a hug, to my surprise she took ahold of him and not
only gave him one of the best hugs I have been a witness
to but then preceded to give him a kiss on the cheek
take him by the shoulders and asked him if he was o.k.
being genuinely concerned for his well being.
It was at that moment that I realized
that I didn't do these things for no reason but because
they made me feel good and what was more that I was
getting greedy for that feeling. I know now that I will
always search for ways to get that feeling and keep
it.
So what am I thankful for? That complete
stranger on a sidewalk in Nantucket. Thankyou whoever
you are.
I have never been transported
to such great heights and such intense feelings of anguish,
at the same time, as I was during the film "Dancer
in the Dark" starring Björk and Katherine
Denueve. I will say at the outset that I would not recommend
this film to just anyone. It is the saddest story you
will ever see but it also elicits one of the greater
aspirations that exists, a mother's sacrificial love
for her child.
Without going into the
plot or giving anything away I just want to express
my gratitude to the makers of this film and especially
to Björk, this incredible talent that was the lead
singer for the Sugarcubes in the eighties (please let
someone else have heard of them other than just me).
Her music was one of the best things happening at the
time, and this film has put together an arsenal of music
and delivers it with such life and emotion that I felt
I was in two films at the same time - one with an incredible
story, well acted by all - and another that went so
far beyond it due to the music that I actually felt
physical pain because of the intensity of feeling that
traversed the boundaries of video, in this case, and
this listener.
All the musical numbers
start out with sounds of daily life remixed into percussion
providing the rhythm for the piece. I understand that
Björk performed one of the songs during an Academy
awards presentation dressed in a large swan costume
and it did not go over very well. I knew that they said
that because they hadn't seen this film, for to have
seen it and to understand the self effacement that this
woman is willing to go through to express herself and
the human reality of pain in the world and the hope
of salvation, they would have seen it in a different
light.
In part I hate writing
this because whenever there is too much hype about a
film and I see it I am most often disappointed. It is
so much better to experience something by accident and
discover it all by yourself but for fear that you may
never hear about it I had to commit this paragraph to
print.
In the end I am thankful
to God for talent and for those who are willing to go
the extra mile to share theirs with a world hungry for
authenticity.
