Grateful for Today

Got up and was ready to go for a walk but then my walking companion had already left on his bike? Nevertheless the day was a good one for a walk/run and I figured I just needed to go. As I began I remembered that this time of year is St George Marathon time. I completed 13 marathon's over a a lot of years and all but one was in St George. I am thankful to have been able to have done that. Today, of course, was not to be a marathon but it was 4 miles and a time to think and ponder and even a time to for a few minutes think about nothing. The air here is not cold but fall is coming. It rained last night and the wet fresh air was different. Air is something to be thankful for by the way. Being out early in the day is always something to be thankful for. Some folks, I think, find gratitude a positive or negative expression and that sort of seems odd to me. I prefer to think of gratitude as positive. Air can be exciting and refreshing and like a drink of a new day or it can be the last hope of just living through the day. I recall Buddha said about "gratitude"

Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn

a lot today, at least we learned a little,

and if we didn't learn a little,

at least we didn't get sick,

and if we got sick,

at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful.

Buddha's gratitude looks back. It searches for a given or specific thing to ge grateful of and overlooks as its prime focus the events of the day (Today). If this approach is positive then it is so probably because in the final analysis it still holds to gratitude as the value sought for. Compare Buddha expression to John F. Kennedy's statement

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As we express our gratitude,

we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words,

but to live by them.

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If one is to "live" by ones words then the expression of those words would look forward in action and expression. Gratitude is more than a feeling about what has happened in the past. Feeling grateful, appreciative, or thankful is an emotion and pleasant feeling but it its incomplete when it is just expressed and not acted upon. It would seem to me that gratitude would follow a blessing that can not be fully repaid. When all you do is still not enough to really pay for what was received all that is left is “gratitude”. The air, sky, our body, our life, those that we share it with, are all gifts that can not be repaid. With all that we have to be grateful for words would never be enough. Gratitude is best expressed by how we live.