Prayer of Gratitude

When I'm feeling fulfilled, warm, and giving, I'm grateful that the feeling has returned.

When I'm overwhelmed, I'm grateful to know that it will pass.

When I'm full of fear, anxious about the future, and uncertain about what to do, I'm grateful for the ability to look inward, knowing peace will return.

When I'm burdened by life's daily challenges, I'm grateful that they are mine.

When I'm alone and feeling alone, I'm grateful knowing soon I will welcome others to my home.

When I'm uneasy and I don't know why, I'm grateful for the understanding and patience my wife and of my children.

When I lack focus on my work, I'm grateful my habits lead me toward healthy distractions like playing guitar, baking sourdough bread, and tending to the cabbage fermenting on the counter.

When I'm down, I'm grateful knowing deeply that it will pass, on its own.

I'm grateful when I have no will, that there is nothing for me to do.

Whether I'm cut on my skin or distraught in my heart, my body will heal. There is nothing for me to do.

I'm grateful for the wisdom that has come from long and hard fought battles, and the subsequent stillness and quiet that showed me those battles were unnecessary.

I'm grateful for the stillness that lies underneath all things, and as I sit in that stillness, all comes to rest on a foundation of peace. 

I'm grateful that when I sit still long enough, peace reveals its own foundation of love.

And as I consume it or it consumes me, I'm grateful to re-emerge as a force of gratitude, a force of giving, a force of compassion, and a force of understanding.

I'm grateful knowing that someday, this is the one thing that perhaps will not pass. Perhaps. Someday.

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