“If you’re not starving for food, if you’re not worried that someone’s going to take you captive or steal your possessions, and if you have time to read a book and resources to buy one, you are one of the most fortunate people in human history.”
— Galen Guengerich, The Way of Gratitude, p. 153
Wisdom Worth Sharing
I’ve been reading Galen Guengerich’s The Way of Gratitude (Random House, 2020), and it’s quickly become one of my favorite books. Here are some passages that have resonated deeply with me:
“This is the day we are given. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (p. 134)
“Each of us has a crucial role to play, no matter who or where we are. In gratitude for the freedom and capabilities we have been given, we should do whatever we can to maximize human dignity, one person at a time.” (p. 161)
“We have been given the extraordinary gift of being alive in a world that labors tirelessly and without complaining to provide us with everything we need. We should bless the sources of our sustenance every chance we get. We should also do what we can to ensure that they flourish as well.” (p. 121)
About the Author and His Journey
What I especially appreciate about Guengerich is how openly he shares his thought processes with readers. As the charismatic, brilliant leader of All Souls Church, one of the nation’s most prominent Unitarian congregations, he brings both personal experience and spiritual insight to his writing.
His journey is compelling: In his mid-twenties, Guengerich left the Conservative Mennonite Church, the faith of his upbringing. He was scared, but he needed to find the way of life that was right for him. For Guengerich, transcendence is not limited to an experience of God but can be reached through gratitude’s ability to take us beyond ourselves and create connection to others and the universe.
Through his personal story, meaningful poems, and guided spiritual practices (including “gratitude goals”), this book helps readers discover how the way of gratitude can make them happier and healthier, providing a new sense of belonging not only to the universe as a whole but also to themselves.
The Power of Gratitude as a Gearshift
One of my favorite concepts from the broader gratitude literature comes from Joan Borysenko:
“Gratitude is indeed like a gearshift that can move our mental mechanism from obsession to peacefulness, from stuckness to creativity, from fear to love. The ability to relax and be mindfully present in the moment comes naturally when we are grateful.”
— Joan Borysenko, “Thank God for What Doesn’t Need Healing”
A Story That Illuminates
Borysenko shares a powerful personal story that illustrates this shift perfectly. She was worried about a failing marriage and anxiously awaiting a breast biopsy that day. Then, out of the blue, she was bitten on the fanny by a dog! She could already see herself in the emergency room “simultaneously being injected with huge doses of tetanus toxoid and rabies vaccine,” and she’d no doubt miss her biopsy and have to worry even longer.
But when she slipped behind a rock to check the damage, she found only “a large red welt, framed by the impression of a perfect set of canine teeth… [her] skin magically unbroken.”
Suddenly, she says, “the entire scene seemed hilariously funny. The dog was transformed from a nasty cur to a Divine messenger. ‘Wake up, O silly human! Feel the sun on your face and the wind in your hair. You are alive, and the world is beautiful. The mountains are alive, and the day is young. There are endless possibilities to experience and worlds to create.'”
That moment of gratitude shifted everything.
Source: Joan Borysenko, “Thank God for What Doesn’t Need Healing” in Louise Hay & friends, Gratitude: A Way of Life (Carlsbad, CA: Hay House, 1996), pp. 9-11
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