Giving Thanks....Humility Required

Maybe I am a slow learner, but this morning a fairly new thought overtook me.  It requires humility to give thanks, express gratefulness.  It is an acknowledgment of something good coming from another or at least from something outside of ourselves.

Sometimes, these "gifts" are hard to receive.  Like when...

A child that we are raising teaches us, as no other teacher can.

The suffering of life teaches us.

Those who are weak, even perhaps outcasts, teach us.

The car breaking down teaches us.

Augh!  We too often want to be the master of all things and people.  We want the world and all of its ways to bow down to our will, our desires, for isn't this the way that we are happiest?  It is a shallow happiness that regards only the happy circumstances of our being in control as its guide.

To be genuinely grateful is to receive all of life's gifts with humility.  This is acknowledging that in our weakness, we need the other. This is becoming aware that as life sometimes seems outside of our control, we are students of a greater good.   A good that can even work through weakness, suffering, helplessness.

This is also being able to receive from others what they long to give and what we don't want to acknowledge we need.

An open hand to receive from the unlikely gift givers and a heart willing to give thanks. May my path begin to reflect this more.