Living With Gratitude

I enjoy drawing, in part because it causes me to slow down and stare - long and hard - at something quite ordinary until I appreciate the intricacies of its shape and shadings. I begin to see things I never noticed before.

In the same way, I often need to be reminded to slow down and appreciate the ordinary in everyday life. As Esther de Waal writes:

"A thankful heart seems such a simple thing , and yet I find that it is something I so easily forget and have so constantly to renew. I no longer let myself be surprised by the sheer miracle that every dawn the sun rises again. If I thought each morning that, like some prima donna, it was positively its last appearance then I might not so lightly take it for granted. When I have lost the gift of wonder, I have ceased to live gratefully... To live gratefully re-lights my awareness and re-kindles my love, for the capacity for true sight cannot really be exercised apart from ... the capacity to see with love and delight, with wonder and tenderness, and above all with gratitude."

(Living With Contradiction, p. 81)