I'm grateful for .......
Vastmind
Memphis, TN Veteran
Thoughts and feelings of gratitude are a pretty good habit to have and cultivate.
The Benefits of Gratitude
Gratitude is an emotion expressing appreciation for what one has—as opposed to a consumer-oriented emphasis on what one wants or needs. Gratitude is getting a great deal of attention as a facet of positive psychology: Studies show that we can deliberately cultivate gratitude, and can increase our well-being and happiness by doing so. In addition, grateful thinking—and especially expression of it to others—is associated with increased levels of energy, optimism, and empathy.
-- http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/gratitude
Bhikkhu Samahita :
http://newbuddhist.com/discussion/20799/gracious-is-gratitude#latest
Finish this sentence. I'm grateful for ........
Comments
you.
Kia Ora,
I'm grateful for the BuddhaDharma...
Metta Shoshin
I'm grateful I even open my eyes in the mornings. There are, after all, no guarantees....
Nicely put, @how.
)
I am grateful for my senses and the myriad of sense pleasures. That's not very Buddhist, but there it is. It is one of the places I am stuck in my practice. Craving for pleasant or interesting things makes one have craving.
My reason/rationality, skepticism, what have you. Whatever it is that allows me to not get hoodwinked, and has done so my entire life (otherwise Christianity would've stuck when my parents tried convincing me of it). I cherish that even in the face of the many hardships of my life; at least I know what's going on and/or whether there's a path to knowing, and I'd rather know than be blissfully ignorant (to answer another thread).
I'm also grateful to have been introduced to Buddhism, which correlates to my previously existing direction in life toward the pursuit of truth... and adds an entire new depth to the alleviation of suffering.
I'm grateful to be alive!
Creativity
I am grateful you are on this forum, @how. You have taught me a lot. As have many others. I am grateful for this forum!
I'm grateful that right now, I'm not sick or in the process of dying.
I'm also grateful for the rain that's made my garden sprout over night and brought the lilac blooms out
I am grateful I have a voice
And for that I am also:
grateful for your patience
grateful for your humour
grateful for your practice
grateful for your kindness
grateful for your being
grateful for your teachings
grateful for your gratitude
grateful for your wisdom
My life
...
Second chances
Everyone here
My family
My friends
And @lobster 's cushions
Warning may contain dog bites and bee stings, which are something to be grateful for too . . .
Being grateful for the great things. Easy. Grateful for the other stuff . . .
_Nice Buddha? Dead. More Buddhas to meet down the road. Great. _.
Im grateful for everything I have-most importantly my family and friends. Grateful for the affliction that required a "spiritual" solution! Bob
Today I'm grateful for chocolate chip cookies, massage chairs, red toe nails, a good game of I Spy with my kids, fresh smelling bed sheets, a full belly, and photo booths.
..
..
Grateful for my family
Grateful for the Dharma
Grateful for my suffering-the greatest of these is/was depression. It is this darkness that made me inquire, to want to understand life.
My abusive grandmother-being able to forgive her was the best thing for my life's journey. Without the impact she had I wouldn't be who I am right now- both good and bad.
Grateful for all you here.
or medicine/essential food item as they are known in moderation . . . Yum, had a big one yesterday.
Also yesterday I was grateful for water.
It flows near to me in the form of the Thames, where I took these early morning Sunday pics . . .
One guy is watering plants, others returning home after drinking fermented cockney juice with their east end dogs. Others have humorously left water for thirsty statues.
Mr Bunny Rabbit has been on the town . . .
... everything and nothing.
I am grateful for being happy here and now with what I have, and wise enough not to crave what I don't have.
I'm grateful for Love
Took these pics by Putney Bridge today, where they start the Oxford and Cambridge boat race . . .
Ocean waves and quorn fillets ( and ice cream )
The Thames +1.
It forms the backdrop and leitmotif of my life.
My very bones have been shaped by the chalk dissolved into it as it runs through it's valley.
Linda McCartney sausages, lightly done in the oven for around 20 minutes, then doused in onion gravy, and served with sautéed potatoes and sweetcorn.
Delicious.
I apologise, i thought this was the yum yum thread.....
In that case.. " The Black Farmer " sausages produced by the UK's only farmer of colour..really.
His name is Wilfred Emanuel-Jones and he farms on the Devon/Cornwall border.
Cooked Heston style..poached in simmering water for a few minutes and then drained and fried in good oil until golden brown.
Served with Heston's mashed potato...bake large pots in their skins, scoop out flesh and mash with milk, butter, and salt and pepper.
Serve with onion gravy made with Gravy Pot stock and a dash of red wine and simple boiled cabbage.
I'm grateful for simple things.
Food. Breathing. Bird song. Sky. Earth.
Oh là là, @Citta...! You should bring this Byronesque side out more often...!
Well you know how Byron was described @dharmamom.." Mad, bad, and dangerous to know "..lol.
@Citta: I'm trying to answer to your Pure Land thread before my son comes back from school, so please don't lure me into temptation with these devious thoughts...
"Mad, bad, and dangerous to know..." exactly what the doctor prescribed...
Kia Ora,
I'm grateful for this 'precious' human birth...
Metta Shoshin
......and the instruction manual that comes with it
)
Grateful that I don't have to go to work every day.
[lobster faints]
I needs those sausages. Reminds me of black and white pudding/sausages my sister brought over from Ireland this week. Yum.
https://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060811025146AAVoycW
. . . at the moment I am grateful for attachments. Of course I am grateful I am not too attached to detachment . . .
I have developed an attachment to my olde camera, trying to take better photos rather than buying a better gadget. So for example here is a picture taken a couple of days ago in Chelsea, near where I inadvertently wandered into a high security polo construction site (but that is another story)
This may sound weird, but I am thankful that I have learned how to not be so shy and express myself. I see people every day who seem so lonely. A lot of people wander around this world isolated, feeling like no one gives a damn about them. But one of the things I try very hard to do is to find the beauty in every person, because I truly do believe it is always there, although sometimes hidden. I used to be shy and isolated and feeling like no one gave a damn about me... but I broke out of that prison and now, I am kind to everyone. I put myself out there and talk to people, compliment people, reach out... strangers, lonely people, not so lonely people. I enjoy relating with people and feeling that connection.
It's a very simple thing... but you never know when what is a simple thing to you, could mean the world to someone else. I have been on the other side of that exchange, after all. "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." I am thankful that my fear of rejection no longer outweighs my love for others.
^^^ Not weird at all. ..
..
I'm grateful for my house in the 'burbs. There's been a lot shootings lately around neighborhoods that we have lived in. That's all we could afford at the time, and we saved, and saved to be able to provide a nicer, safer place for our kids. I'm grateful, they can just go out and ride their bikes without me having to worry. They walk home from school...( no, not 5 miles in the snow, hahaha), but they get a nice stroll and even pass a newly built park. I'm grateful I could provide a nicer spot for my children than I had. I'm grateful they aren't in a concrete jungle. They run down the stairs like the ones I used to see on Leave it to Beaver...hahaha. I never thought that nice, peaceful, green, run and play life was in the cards for me or the family I would have some day.
Grateful for my house and my yard. And bicycle chains that come off the kids' bikes all the time. I'm grateful they get to see ducks, and a lake.
Yes, the Thames is nice. I used to do those river boat trips which come with a cockney commentary on the sights of interest.
Hopefully, they sounded more authentic than Dick van Dyke's efforts.... Bless him, he did his best.... Proper cockney can sound almost unintelligible to British ears, let alone what it must sound like to American ones....!
But D.v.D's efforts were surpassed by Don Cheadle's in Oceans 11 and 12 @federica...
And worst of all
( or best for a laugh ) is Brad Pitt being Irish in Guy Ritchies ' Snatch '. rofl...
loike, so dey arr so dey arr....
I know. it almost hurts the ears to listen, doesn't it....?
Twenty-two years ago while kicking drugs, a mentor told me to list ten things I'm grateful for before I get out of bed in the morning. If I couldn't keep track, then to keep a pen and paper by my bedside to jot them down.
I exclaimed, "TEN things?! You've got to be kidding me!" To which she replied, "You're right. Make it twenty."
Twenty two years later I'm still doing it. It's gotten much easier.
Today:
Life
My wife
My daughter
My dad
My brain still works
I slept in a bed last night
I didn't go to bed hungry
Plumbing (my last place I used an outhouse)
We made rent this month
My book got picked up by a publisher
The internet
I'm happy
I woke with no pain today
An unexpected check in the mail yesterday
...the rest are people you wouldn't know or fall into the category of tmi
Advances in dentistry.
A filling fell out taking some tooth with it.
It was dealt with swiftly, painlessly, and with huge dexterity.
For anyone like myself who was traumatised by experiences with the British School Dental Service , while in short trousers , it is a never ending miracle.
My breath (even when it's bad).
The fact that I have the capacity to love.
All of the people in my life who love me.
Love, love, love.
My chinchilla.
The way sunlight hits forest pine trees in the morning.
Poetry.
Cheap underground shows in grungy old venues, and the communities that make them possible.
Hikes.
Books.
My favorite podcasts.
The works of Carl Sagan.
My healthy, young body.
The library up at the college I attend.
The Dharmic teachings.
Myths.
The giant, humming winter machine plugged into my kitchen that functions as a bountiful and ever-cold food storage device. Thank you, refrigerator.
And, lastly, my comfortable, warm bed that I am just about to retire to
I love Carl Sagan! Bought the 'Cosmos' dvd boxset to watch with my son.
I used to say that he and Woody Allen were the only men I'd accept a marriage proposal from without winking.
Nowadays, I'll settle for a steamy one-night stand with an All Blacks rugbier.
Do times change!
We haz plan!
grateful for present:
Return of @zombiegirl /woman
Love (gotta have that)
Fingers, I have several
Death, yes really. No death, no life
Hats, I wear a cap very often as a sun block
Mushrooms, which I had for tea
Fish, not just because they are a symbol of the awake, they are also delicious.
Cats, an excellent invention
Words
Space
Humour, that is 11 but who is counting?
@dharmamom, Carl Sagan is fantastic!!! I bought myself the Cosmos DVDs for Christmas.
The book was cosmic and lovely as well.
People like him are a gift to planet earth
and finally . . .
12 gifts (another form of present)
LOL - sorry guys but not much, I seem to have mixed this thread up with the ten things to be grateful for thread . . .
Summer
Buddy Holly
Good Golly Miss Molly
The working folly
And boats.
Hammersmith Palais
The Bolshoi Ballet
Jump back in the alley
And nanny goats..
Oh hang on, thats Ian Dury's ' Reasons to be cheerful`'
part three....
Indeed.
I watched "Cosmos" when I was 9 (I can imagine that was long before you were born) and loved him to bits.
The info is long dated but never mind, still one of the most intelligent series ever.
Was deeply sorry when he passed away.
I am deeply grateful for the native intelligence and propriosensitivities of most people. It does seem to me that most people are perceptive enough to get the gist of what's happening around them.
In those rare instances where people have absolutely no clue how to interpret what's going on and they react and make situations even worse, I think I need to remember this.
I am grateful that dharma is still available to me and everyone.
New Brunswick, NJ