The Gratitude Challenge

Just how grateful can you be? 

Kindspring.org has thrown down the gauntlet with the “21-day Gratitude Challenge” which starts on November 7th and runs until Thanksgiving Day (November 28th).   Instead of being thankful for a minute just before plowing into the turkey (or tofurky), this challenge is an opportunity to cultivate gratitude as a daily practice.  

Gratitude is, after all, counter-cultural if not downright subversive.   In our world of 24-7 advertising, we are taught to focus on what we don’t have, so that we go out and buy whatever we lack.  But no matter how stuffed our homes are, we are never filled inside—it is like drinking salt water to satisfy thirst. 

In the gratitude “underworld,” however, we focus on what we have, no matter how small, and appreciate it as a gift. Gratitude is inclusive; we can be grateful for a material thing, but equally for a sunset, a stranger’s smile, a moment of peace, a word of wisdom, or reconciliation after a misunderstanding.  We can even develop appreciation for difficulty or lack.  Gratitude expands to fill us up where “stuff” can’t. 

And paradoxically, the less we have, the more able we are to be grateful.  I can’t recall all the thousands of meals I have eaten, but I clearly remember the time my brother, two friends, and I were backpacking and ran out of food.  (OK, not brilliant planning there!)  We had to hike 10 miles on an empty stomach and drive another half hour before heading to a restaurant.   Rarely have I appreciated food more than at that breakfast feast!

And I recall encountering a woman who came to use the food pantry housed in a church I was serving.  She wanted bread so she could make a grilled cheese sandwich.  We had no bread, so I gave her $10.  The way she reacted, you would have thought she’d won the lottery.  She was overjoyed, realizing that she could not only have bread, but $7 left over to buy other food.   I was completely humbled by her thanks.  Wow.  Gratitude.

You can sign up for the challenge at http://www.kindspring.org/21day/.

Do it.  Be revolutionary.  Be grateful.