Everyday Gratitude: A Practice Series

The little things? The little moments? They aren’t little.

Jon Kabat-Zinn

What does it mean to live each day with the recognition that the little things and the little moments aren’t actually little? How can we nurture a relationship to life that honors its subtleties?

If you’ve spent any time at all with us on our website, these sorts of questions may not be new to you, nor are they new to us. And yet, we find ourselves delightfully drawn again and again to such inquiry. This engagement continually reveals new possibilities, insights, and depths and reminds us about what matters.

In the spirit of such grateful inquiry, we invite you to join us for an 8-day practice as we seek inspiration in the words of wise others and engage with questions that challenge our habitual ways of seeing and being in the world.

This practice is inspired by the release of our first book: Everyday Gratitude: Inspiration for Living Life as a Gift.

The Practice

Day 1: Every Time We Feel Satisfied…
We are so often in conversations with ourselves and others about what is lacking, missing, or not enough in our lives. Everyday Gratitude, and grateful living, help us to see and acknowledge that which is sufficient and abundant within us and around us, taking none of our blessings and riches for granted.

Day 2: To Live is So Startling…
We can so often sleep-walk through our lives, forgetting to notice and be astonished, amazed, and surprised by the vastness and the detail of it all. Everyday Gratitude, and grateful living, invite us to surrender the many, habitual preoccupations of mind that want us to control life, and in their place to savor and celebrate the wonder and mystery which abound for our enrichment.

Day 3: While We Cry Ourselves to Sleep…
In the midst of the difficult times in our lives, it can seem challenging to muster gratitude for much of anything, especially for the challenges themselves. And yet we can often point to our greatest learning, insight, and growth as having arisen in the rocky terrain of hard times. Everyday Gratitude, and grateful living, help us remember the larger, longer landscape of our lives and to trust that compassion, vulnerability, and curiosity can help us harvest the lessons that will become our future wisdom.

Day 4: Though You May Not Be Able to Change It…
There is much difficulty in life outside of our control, and learning how to respond to these situations in ways that do not cause further harm or bring additional difficulty for us or others – this is a profound practice. Everyday Gratitude, and grateful living, help us recognize that we can listen when our hearts move us to act and that our beautiful actions can be as varied as taking a bold stand, extending generosity, being creative, or simply offering the beauty of silence where it is needed.

Day 5: Every Act of Love is an Act of Peace…
It has been said that no act of love is ever, truly small. And imagining that our acts of love are actually each a work of peace stretches our sense of the importance and possibility of all that we offer. No kindness ever wasted. No action without a ripple effect. Everyday Gratitude, and grateful living, encourage us to know that whatever we offer from love is enough, is needed, and can help to nourish the heart of the world.

Day 6: Don’t Ask What the World Needs…
To connect with our “purpose” in life, we are often guided to try to find our bliss and to follow that. But following this directive can be like chasing sunshine. We can often better know what we are “meant for” when we notice the circumstances that light us up from the inside and make us shine. Everyday Gratitude, and grateful living, help us remember and connect with what makes us come alive and to freely share the gifts of our aliveness with others.

Day 7: How Wonderful it is…
The possibility of improving the world invites us deeper into the landscape of our planetary village and home, and with more intention. Everyday Gratitude, and grateful living, remind us that acting on behalf of those freedoms and concerns for which we are most grateful can be a sustainable and uplifting path to improving life for everyone.

Day 8: Wanderer, There is No Path…
We are liberated from following tracks already laid down or prescribed for us when our inner compass takes us into the tall fields and woods of our lives and when we trust that our heart will always take us through and home. Everyday Gratitude, and grateful living, connect us with values that help us to live our lives such that our imprint, our footprint, and our legacy will reflect the wholehearted truth of who we really are and what matters most deeply – for us and for others.

Feel moved to support future practices?
We warmly welcome contributions!