Now, Why Do I Call this ‘Gratitude’?
Here I am pulling out an essay about gratitude I owed as a high school student but never expressed because I still nursed the resentments that preceded that act of generosity. This is a strange phenomenon where gratitude is concerned. Resentment is a powerful and persistent force. As long as it remains in force, the odds against replacing it with gratitude remain daunting. I suppose the great teachers of loving-kindness have addressed this—was I too oblivious to take it in? But I carried my reproaches very far into my adulthood.
I had no intention of writing about social justice, but when my co-administrator suggested it, how could I say no? I entered a strange state while writing this epistle. I began to feel as I did four decades ago when I was writing editorials for a daily newspaper. In those “epistles” nothing could be personal. But this subject, no matter how editorial-worthy it is, must still be personal!
This week’s featured epistles:
Kwan Yin and the Golden Cord. New post shows that when it comes to selecting higher powers, I am an equal-opportunity devotee.
The Conundrum of Social Justice. This is a subject on everyone’s mind, even those whose solution is to stop watching the news.
Gratitude: Suppressed and Sawed off. It’s graduation time again, a good time to visit the domestic hostilities of high school
A Big Huzzah
For the second time in three issues, I turn to The Daily Meditation for the Big Huzzah, and it is hardly a surprise.. Paul Harrison’s website is supreme, full of worthwhile advice on many fronts of meditation.
Today the topic is meditating with your cats. It strikes a chord with me because many subscribers to this blog live with cats. And if you’re going to live with cats, shouldn’t you meditate with them? It was posted last month. Click on the link below.
My wife and I kept cats for 20-some years, most often employing the cats as designated companions for our children. When our younger child went off to college, the remaining cat and I decided to form a relationship. We didn’t exactly meditate, but we had rituals. And after a while he would not allow me to feed him. That was my wife’s job: He must have figured she was in charge. Or maybe he thought that being a playmate was a much higher calling than caretaker.
In any case, after he died my wife and I discovered we both were allergic to cats. I love to visit cats, but I can no longer live with them. So I have begun trying to meditate with my wife’s parakeets. We are off to a slow start, but I can be patient. After all, they are dinosaurs.
Let’s Start a Dialogue
I have already recruited a friend to contribute a guest post. I should be included with Keyboard #4. But in the meantime, the only comment so far was posted by my wife. Come on, people, aren’t you dying to post something? It’s OK if you don’t agree with me. If you want to send me a private message, please email me at gratitude.kt@gmail.com. I will reply.
Til next time
…May your meditations be worthy, and if you live with a cat, may you be transported.