Our Church sign reads,”Gratitude is Contagious!” Which not only caught my eye, but set me to thinking about the truth of that statement. How in the world do we get that attitude, and can we catch it from others? Oh, I hope so, and in many ways, I know so.
My basic source of such an opinion is my own experiences as a child in a house that embraced the whole concept gratefulness—-grateful for life’s essentials, grateful for relationships, grateful for life itself.
There are certain images that are burned into my conscience that in many ways govern my own attitude. One image is my Dad saying grace before every meal…not Mom, for some reason, but Dad. I don’t remember the words, but the simple action of this great big, kind, benevolent man pausing to give thanks for sustenance, probably “contaminated” or rather fostered my own life of being grateful.
I remember, if we were still bustling around getting a meal on the table, or perhaps he was eating alone, he quite often bowed his head and said grace silently…we saw his lips moving, so we knew he was praying. This led one neighbor to ask of a farm helper who ate with us, “Is Charlie still talking to his plate?” Charlie wasn’t talking to his plate!!
In these somewhat puzzling days of uncertainty and words spoken with malice, and we find it hard to find that gratefulness, I hope we have a history to fall back on, or someone that will infect our spirits with gratitude.
ellenblose.blog 