the fifth gift...

The fifth gift of waiting is gratitude. 

Gratitude turns obstacles into opportunity. 

Gratitude moves us beyond entitlement. 

Gratitude opens our eyes to the blessings of small things. 

"Waiting can give us unexpected moments to be grateful for...the small things we may not have noticed before. Waiting can inspire us to look around carefully and to observe what's there." (pg 63) 

"If the only prayer you say in your entire life is 'Thank you,' that would suffice."  - Meister Eckhart, German mystic (1260- 1329) 

In regard to a situation in which the author found herself in a dark period of her life, she wrote, "Was this an opportunity for me to change something, an opportunity to grow? I thought of Christina Baldwin's great line, 'Life is an unending opportunity to see things differently, to keep reframing disaster and discouragement into faith.'  It got me thinking about reframing... In the Beatitudes, Jesus offers the chance to be in the reframing business. Many of the persons described in the Beatitudes says well-known preacher Fred Craddock, 'are victims, to be sure, but the beatitudes deliver them from a victim mentality.' The Beatitudes invite us to see blessedness even in the midst of tumult and suffering. They invite us not to be trapped by circumstances, but to look for the grace, to find the possibilities, to explore edges for growth."  (pg. 65) 

The Beatitudes teach us that we are blessed in our waiting because it is then that we have the opportunity to see with new eyes, to count our blessings. (pg 66) 

The feeling of Gratitude is a shy bird. Chasing it does no good. Genuine Gratitute can never be forced.  Trying hard to feel Gratitude is like trying hard to fall asleep or fall in love. The harder you try to be grateful, the more elusive the experience becomes.  It must come to you, on its own schedule and on its own terms.  You practice Gratitude by carefully building a home in your heart to accommodate it.  The bird does not always come, but it you make a home for it, it comes often enough. (quoting Timothy Miller, How to Want What You Have) 

In our fragility and brokenness, little things become a lifeline: the food a neighbor brings to the door, a peaceful sit in a lilac- filled park, a gentle touch of understanding, a homemade card of a child.  Needing all the emotional help we can get, we notice all those small things that sustain us while we wait. (pg 67) 

"For 13 years, I have been attending and sometimes leading a women's spirituality program at my church...and over the years in this group, it has become a tradition to go around the circle and share what we have come to call our 'Miracles.'  This periodic review offers all of us a chance to ask ourselves, 'What were the large or small events in my life during the past few weeks that seemed truly miraculous to me?'  Sometimes people's answers are big and dramatic: a loved one's has been saved or medical tests have come back blessedly negative for the presence of disease.  But at o there times answers are small and, at first hearing, almost insignificant: a crocus is blooming on the front step after an interminably long winter, or the finch is building her next once again in the same place above the garage.  Most of all, this time of sharing miracles has taught each of us to look at life through the lens of gratitude, appreciating the small things, taking nothing for granted." (pg 69)