Being in Gratitude by Meghan Genge

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough. - Meister Eckhart

I need to admit to you that I am the daughter of a minister. This is important information to have when you hear that I think I must have said the Lord's Prayer about seven hundred thousand times in my life. I am exaggerating, I know, but it must be somewhere up there.

A few weeks ago I was sitting on a plane feeling extremely tight and nervous and desperate for something to focus on to calm me as the plane was taking off. Strangely enough, into my head came the words for the Lord's Prayer. Grateful, I recited it under my breath as the plane took off. Thinking about it afterwards, I realized that nowhere in that prayer do you ever say thank you. If it is the prayer that we were given to say to our great Creator, why is there no gratitude in it?

When Jamie asked us to write about gratitude, that plane ride came back to me and after some pondering, I think I have it figured out:

Gratitude is the one thing that we have to come to ourselves.

As children we are reminded to say 'thank you,' but as adults we are not. Gratitude is something that we feel and give on our own terms. To be truly grateful and thankful for something means that we have understood that we have received a gift. No one can tell us to be grateful - it is something we have to feel. To remember to say thank-you to someone or even to who or whatever your version of the Divine is, is to show an emotional maturity and understanding of who we are and how deeply we are connected. It shows that you know who you truly are.

To be in a state of gratitude, I believe, is one of the most powerful choices we can make.

xo 

Megg is a writer, a seeker, and a finder of magic.