Dance Meditation:
Reading: Poem by Denise Leverto
Praise wet snow
falling early.
Praise the shadow
my neighbor’s chimney casts on the tile roof
even this gray November day that should, they say,
have been golden.
Praise
the invisible sun burning beyond
the white cold sky, giving us
light and the chimney’s shadow.Praise
god or gods, the unknown,
that which imagines us, which stays
our hand,
our murderous hand,
and gives us
still,
in the shadow of death,
our daily life,
and the dream still
of goodwill, peace on earth.Praise
flow and change, night and
the pulse of day.Sermon: “An Attitude of Gratitude”
Every day there is a thank you to be said.
Every single day, a thank you, a new one.
Every day it behooves us
to stare into our open and cupped hands
and picture there
something we have been given for which we are grateful.
Even if it is thank you for the air,
unseen and ubiquitous,
known by breath and breeze.These are the words of Rumi:
Lord, the air smells good today, straight from the
mysteries within the inner courts of God.These are the words of John Lame Deer:
Listen to the air.
You can hear it, feel it,
smell it, taste it.
Woniya wakan, the holy air,
which renews all by its breath.
Woniya wakan, spirit, life, breath, renewal,
it means all that.
We sit together, don’t touch,
but something is there,
we feel it between us,
as a presence.
A good way to start thinking about nature,
talk about it.
Rather talk to it,
talk to the rivers, to the lakes.
to the winds,
as to our relatives.Every day there is a thank you to be said. A new one.
Thank you for the orange juice this morning;
it was so fresh and sweet and cool -
a delight in my mouth that had gone silent and still
during the fast of night, now alive
with taste and pleasure.These words are in the Hindu text, the Rig Veda:
Sweet be the night,
sweet the dawn,
sweet the earth’s fragrance,
sweet be our Heaven!Thank you.
Every single day, a thank you.
How nice it is to have another day of life.
When I asked Abe what he’s grateful for,
his second answer was that
he was grateful for another day of life.
His first answer was that he was grateful for me!
I was grateful that that was his first and not his second answer!These are the words of Annie Dillard:
Every day is a god, each day is a god,
and holiness holds forth in time.
I worship each god,
I praise each day splintered down,
and wrapped in time like a husk,
a husk of many colors spreading,
at dawn fast over the mountains split.Every day that begins with a thank you creates an attitude of gratitude -- creates a day of hopeful receptivity. Isn’t that the way to live?
I think of the word attitude as having two meanings. First, it is a way of thinking or behaving. To illustrate the thinking side of attitude, you most likely have the attitude that all persons are created equal. As illustrative of the behaving side of the definition, a few years ago, bars stopped calling the after-work wind-down-with-a-drink time, “Happy Hour.” They began to refer to it as time for “Attitude Adjustment.”
It’s a word that’s also recently come into idiomatic usage among our younger population. It’s used to indicate a certain fresh edge someone may exhibit; one who has a quick outspoken, in-your-face manner: “Girl! You’ve got attitude!”
Second, it can also be a physical position - of the body or its parts - as those a dancer would assume; or like striking an attitude, or pose, for a snapshot.
Given that we may indeed want to live our days in the spirit of hopeful receptivity, how is it that we may choose to live with an attitude of gratitude? How can thankfulness pervade the thinking self, the behaving self, the physical self?
All of us are used to Thank You’s. Thank you for the birthday gift. Thank you for the ride to church. Thank you to the restaurant servor who’s just re-filled your coffee cup. Thank you for your call. Thank you for your thoughtfulness. Thank you for all the hard work you did. Thanks to your associate who ran out to get lunch for everyone.
Some of us have family customs of saying Grace before a meal. One family I know goes around the table at dinner time so that each person may speak about one blessing they received that day, and one blessing they gave.
These are the words of a Mennonite Blessing:
Thank you for the wind and rain
and sun and pleasant weather,
thank you for this our food
and that we are together.Our little annual Thank You custom in church is --one Sunday close to Thanksgiving-- to write out a thank you or two or three on the little 3x5 cards provided in the pews. It happened last Sunday. People wrote lovely little spontaneous notes to others of us in this church. The cards were collected, and this week they have been sent to the recipients. What a nice little habit to get into.
The physical self writes, and hugs, leans close to listen, holds hands or shakes hands, and smiles and nods toward others. Our social world resounds with thank you’s - sincere thank you’s, heartfelt thank you’s, automatic thank you’s. And thereby we live, in polite and caring proximity, a tribute to human civility and compassion.
Sheila Harvill made a neat Freudian slip recently one Sunday morning, here in the Sanctuary, as she stood before you in her role as Board of Trustees’ Greeter. She was inviting newcomers to join us in the Fellowship Hall after the service...not for a little socializing, but for a little socialization! She caught her slip and corrected it and we laughed, but probably both are true! Church-school-family are all deeply involved in the process of socialization.
These are the words of Daphne Rose Kingma:
In relation to others, gratitude is good manners; in relation to ourselves,
it is a habit of the heart and a spiritual discipline.There are times when we feel the great need to say thank you, and there’s no one or nothing to say it to: A lovely sunset, caught by a glance to the west, at the clearing after a storm; so touched by the beauty, you experience a sense of gratitude. A time of stepping back to realize how grateful you may be for a particular person or persons in your life. A particularly profound moment in which you may feel the surge of gratitude for being alive - right here, right now.
These are the words of Saint Augustine:
“[People] go abroad to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.”
[Now, let us] acknowledge the wonder of our physical incarnation--that we are here, in these particular bodies, at this particular time, in these particular circumstances. May we never take for granted the gift of our individuality.”
These are the words of Thich Nhat Hanh:
I have arrived.
I am home.
In the here.
In the now.
I am solid.
I am free.
In the ultimate I dwell.These are the words of D. H Lawrence:
Oh, for the wonder
that bubbles into my soul.At such moments, the physical self is in full attitude; you will actually feel a sensation in your heart of a vast openness, and of poignancy - that bittersweet sadness that can signal tears. I believe that at those moments, we are filled with the sense of great love available to us and through us. It is a breakthrough moment - from ordinary living to a momentary glimpse of the source and meaning of life.
Gratefulness - “great fullness,” as Brother David Steindl-Rast reminds us, “is the full response of the human heart to the gratuitousness of all that is.” Truly every single thing we have has been given to us, not necessarily because we deserve it, but gratuitously, for no known reason. And whatever source we believe is the giver -- some concept of God, or simply the breathtaking randomness of the universe -- when we give thanks, we take our place in the great wheel of life, recognizing our connection to one another and to all of creation. Having an attitude of gratitude plugs us in to the aliveness of the world.
These are the words of Martha Graham:
There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost, the world will not have it.”
These are the words of Joan Halifax:
May my body
Be a prayerstick
For the world.As most of you know, this church has a Labyrinth - a 35-foot diameter canvass floorcloth with a replica of the Chartres Cathedral 11-circuit Labyrinth painted on it. We offer it as a tool for spiritual development. It is used for walking meditation. It was said by Lauren Artress, founder of the current Labyrinth movement in this country that walking the path of the Labyrinth is like a body prayer. “May my body be a prayerstick for the world!”
Prayer is an intimate little ritual of request and thanksgiving. A negotiation with the mystery of life, perhaps, but also an expression of all that is “yes” in our daily experiences.
I’m careful with the word, “Prayer.” Especially around here. But, it probably is especially around here that we may need to talk about such things. There is always a need to pay attention to beauty, kindness, and mystery, and there is always a need to express gratitude. Cultivating an attitude of gratitude is psychologically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually healthy, so, rituals of thanksgiving become not only useful but necessary to our complete well-being. The body seeks an attitude of gratitude, as does the mind and heart. Call it what you will - prayer, dance, song - such feelings must find human form.
Gratitude arises in us, it seems to me, when we become aware of these things: Innate Beauty, Created Beauty, Kindness and Caring, and Mystery. And, the way to become aware is in the act of Paying Attention to the details of life and living.
These are the words of Li Po:
The birds have vanished into the sky,
and now the last cloud drains away.
We sit together, the mountain and me,
Until only the mountain remains.Innate beauty is that in life which is natural.
O, Universal Spirit of Life,
Thank you for the shapes of leaves;
Thank you for long dark eyelashes;
Thank you for grasshoppers and crocodiles and worms and whales;
Thank you for gray skies and thunder;
Thank you for moss and bees, crevices and escarpments.
Created beauty is the work of our hands and mind, found in the arts and traditions, sciences and innovation.
O, Ground of Being,
Thank you for free verse and free thinking;
Thank you for tapestry and flying buttresses;
Thank you for the circle;
Thank you for theories and cures and choirs;
Thank you for tea ceremonies, and napkins.These are the words of Chris Glaser:
Holy Creator,
thank you for artists:
visual, verbal,
musical, kinesthetic,
spiritual...
Within their creative process
may we recognize
the divine in all creation
and be moved to awe
and wonder and worship.Kindness and Caring is experienced through authentic experiences of compassion, concern, respect, and through acts of love.
O, Love,
Thank you for babies and children, and even for teenagers;
Thank you for chicken soup;
Thank you for letters to the editor and conflict management;
Thank you for the pleasure of touching;
Thank you for kisses, yes, especially for kisses.These are the words of Mother Teresa:
We may wonder whom can I love and serve? Where is the face of God to whom I can pray? The answer is simple. That naked one. That lonely one. That unwanted one is my brother and my sister. If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.
Mystery is the hovering and encompassing unknown. Questions that lead to answers lead only to questions again. What we know is never all that we can know. What we know today is more than we knew yesterday and less than we will know tomorrow. Time is Nature’s way of keeping everything from happening all at once, so there can only be patience, curiosity, trust, and the long work of seeking.
These are the words of the Sacred Song of the Sikhs:
I bow to the One who has no color,
I bow to the One who has no beginning.
I bow to the One who is without fault,
I bow to the One who is incomprehensible.
I bow to the One who has no treasure,
I bow to the One who is indestructible.
I bow to the Bountiful.
I bow to the Unlimited.PAYING ATTENTION is the key to the mystery, the beauty, and the love we experience in life. PAYING ATTENTION is therefore the key to gratefulness.
Without seeing the lively and precious details of innate beauty, created beauty, kindness and caring, and Mystery, we will never be surprised by the rich and elegant gift of sentient Being -- and Thanksgiving will be lost.
These are the words of Molly Fumia:
To be joyful in the universe is a brave and reckless act. The courage for joy springs not from the certainty of human experience, but the surprise. Our astonishment at being loved, our bold willingness to love in return--these wonders promise the possibility of joyfulness, no matter how often and how harshly love seems to be lost. Therefore, despite the world’s sorrows, we give thanks for our loves, for our joys and for the continued courage to be happily surprised.
I wish for you a grateful heart,
and many chosen occasions for praise and blessing,
so that Thanksgiving will live within you
all the days of your life.Benediction
written in 1513, by Fra GiovanniThere is nothing I can give you
which you do not have;
But there is much, very much, that
while I cannot give it, you can take.No heaven can come to us unless our hearts
find rest in today. Take heaven!
No peace lies in the future which is not hidden
in this present instant. Take peace!
The gloom of the world is but a shadow.
Behind it, yet within reach, is joy.
There is a radiance and glory in the darkness, could we but see,
and to see, we have only to look. I beseech you to look.-Amen and Shalom
Most of the quotations used in the Sermon were taken from a little book that is a favorite of mine: “A Grateful Heart: Daily Blessings for the Evening Meal from Buddha to the Beatles.” It was edited by M. J. Ryan, and published by Conari Press, Berkeley, CA, c. 1994.
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