Comments on: The Cultivation of Gratitude http://rabbibrant.com/2007/03/30/the-cultivation-of-gratitude/ A Blog by Rabbi Brant Rosen Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:56:06 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: kurt graves http://rabbibrant.com/2007/03/30/the-cultivation-of-gratitude/#comment-2861 Sat, 26 Jan 2008 21:39:36 +0000 http://shalomrav.wordpress.com/2007/03/30/the-cultivation-of-gratitude/#comment-2861 This is a really beautiful post. Today I am reeling from a recent personal disaster and this post is shalom.

]]> By: Lesley Williams http://rabbibrant.com/2007/03/30/the-cultivation-of-gratitude/#comment-713 Fri, 30 Mar 2007 23:13:31 +0000 http://shalomrav.wordpress.com/2007/03/30/the-cultivation-of-gratitude/#comment-713 The risk with focusing on individual gratitude is that it can easily slip into self-satisfaction and smugness. This reminds me of being exhorted in grade school to be “grateful” I was born in the U.S., and not one of those other godawful places that didn’t have all of our advantages and liberties etc.

When I discuss gratitude with my daughter, I try to include the notion that in appreciating what we have, we should also think of ways we can share these blessings with the wider world.

For me the most perfect expression of universal gratitude is that great Louis Armstrong song:

I see trees of green, red roses too
I watch them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself what a wonderful world

I hear babies cry I watch them grow
And they’ll learn much more than I’ll ever know
And I think to myself oh what a wonderful world

]]> By: Josh Mark http://rabbibrant.com/2007/03/30/the-cultivation-of-gratitude/#comment-712 Fri, 30 Mar 2007 19:54:47 +0000 http://shalomrav.wordpress.com/2007/03/30/the-cultivation-of-gratitude/#comment-712 I really think that accessing “gratitude,” within our experience is so key to happiness and real fufillment. Gratitude is a deeply connected kind of feeling. Pam and I call it “the appreciation factor.” It often gets lost in our scurrying about and worrying about things big and small. It is easy to lose track of feeling grateful in the regular-ness of living. Making sacrificies helped remind the ancient ancestors of being grateful, but for them it was so so motivated by fear. Perhaps we can be more free of this fear, even though we know life can randomly be horrible at times. We Jews really know a lot about that. At Pesach, like most of our holidays, (including Shabbat), it is such a great reminder to stay tuned into gratitude and appreication as an opening to connection, and to the joy of the moment. It’s an everyday kind of miracle when that can happen.

Josh Mark

]]> By: Shirley Gould http://rabbibrant.com/2007/03/30/the-cultivation-of-gratitude/#comment-711 Fri, 30 Mar 2007 19:52:32 +0000 http://shalomrav.wordpress.com/2007/03/30/the-cultivation-of-gratitude/#comment-711 Gratitude is just one of the feelings with which we ought to greet each day. We also need self-confidence, so that no matter what the day brings “I will be able to face it and handle it”. And we also need a sense of social connection so that we are aware of our fellow human beings and their needs.

]]> By: Jordan Margolis http://rabbibrant.com/2007/03/30/the-cultivation-of-gratitude/#comment-705 Fri, 30 Mar 2007 16:38:47 +0000 http://shalomrav.wordpress.com/2007/03/30/the-cultivation-of-gratitude/#comment-705 I am grateful for the opportunity to offer my belated thanks during Pesach since I was stuffing my face with food on Thanksgiving and I didn’t want to talk with my mouth full (as my mother taught me manners well, but I seemingly was slow on the uptake about public expressions of gratitude) and, anyway, I now publicly admit that I missed the significance of the moment, so Thank God I have another chance to thank … the source for all wonders in the world for which thanks is due and should be expressed (except by Benedictine Monks who would break their vows of silence and get into trouble).

Shabbat Shalom
Happy Pesach
Thanks O’Million (I missed St. Patty’s Day, too)

Jordan Marg O’lis

]]> By: Ross Hyman http://rabbibrant.com/2007/03/30/the-cultivation-of-gratitude/#comment-703 Fri, 30 Mar 2007 15:12:07 +0000 http://shalomrav.wordpress.com/2007/03/30/the-cultivation-of-gratitude/#comment-703 I think that one of the purposes of the thanksgiving offering is that the ritual makes what might otherwise have been an individual expression of gratitude into a communal expression of gratitude. The “we” language of the Blessing of Thanksgiving retains that aspect.

]]> By: pastorofdisaster http://rabbibrant.com/2007/03/30/the-cultivation-of-gratitude/#comment-701 Fri, 30 Mar 2007 14:06:35 +0000 http://shalomrav.wordpress.com/2007/03/30/the-cultivation-of-gratitude/#comment-701 Thank you for this post on gratitude. It is something incredibly important to my spiritual existence. When my gratitude ebbs then I definitely see this as a spiritual issue. Sometimes during those ebbs I can hear my wise friend reminding me, “don’t forget to breath.” Then I become grateful for each breath.

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