Gratitude is an affirmation of all the good that has come to us from the world around. It could be the resplendence of the sunrise, the tranquillity of a night sky or
the mesmerising beauty of a landscape coming to us gratis and
giving us the happiness of just
being alive!
It could be the comforting voice or a tear shed with you in a moment of complete desolation that fills you with gratefulness and gives you the strength to carry on. It could be the act of giving to the lonely and the deprived, a giving that transcends all feelings of self and ennobled by the belief that it blesses him. It is the obligation we all have to each other and the thought that every man and woman is a brother or sister to the other.
The giver is as much blessed, as he feels grateful for the opportunity to serve another. The recipient is full of thankfulness for what he has received. “Taught by that Power that pities me, I learn to pity them,” says the good Vicar of Wakefield.
Gratitude can be for the courier boy who delivers you your precious package, to the driver who opens the door of the car, the bus conductor who helps you get on the bus, the neighbour’s child who smiles at you or the colleague who steps out to make place for you on the lift. You can give them back a tip, a sweet smile, a pat on the back, a word of thanks in appreciation.
“There is no duty more obligatory than the repayment of kindness,” said Cicero. Gratitude is never demanded nor is it one’s right to expect, it is a feeling that arises in the heart and is seen in the eyes.
Albert Einstein said it right when he said, “A hundred times I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labours of other men living and dead and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving.”
Those who have not given have
never known the luxury of doing good.