Design Team Creations
For more from the Design Team, and detailed close-ups, check out the November 2008 Design Team Gallery
Journaling Prompts
Season of Gratitude: With Thanksgiving approaching in the US, this season of autumn, with its beautiful colors and family occasions has become almost the very embodiment of gratitude. What traditions do you follow with your loved ones during this time of year? Where did those traditions originate? Did you create any of them on your own, and why? Is there something about fall that says gratitude to you?
Hidden Blessings: Sometimes life hands us situations that are challenging, yet after some time passes, we recognize that those challenges were necessary for our growth and greater good. Can you think of something in your life that at first looked like a struggle or difficulty that then turned out to be for the best? How did you feel as you were traversing that difficult time and when did you recognize that experience as blessing in disguise?
Harvest of the Spirit: As a time of harvest, agricultural societies have always celebrated fall as a period of abundance and reaping the benefits of their labors. What investments do you make in yourself that have reaped benefits? Do you take the time to stop and celebrate your own growth and harvests?
Thankful for You: We have all been blessed with parents, grandparents, teachers or friends who have given us special gifts and have boosted our self-esteem and confidence. Is there someone from your past who changed your life in ways that you still think about today? Who is it, and what did he or she do which impacted you? What lasting effect has this person’s actions or attitude had on who you are now? Who in your life today makes you feel grateful for the love and companionship you enjoy - a family member or special friend? What could you say to him or her to truly express what you feel?
Music
Quotes
At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us. - Albert Schweitzer Saying thank you is more than good manners. It is good spirituality. - Alfred Painter Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others. - Cicero The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings. - Eric Hoffer Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul. - Henry Ward Beecher As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. - John F. Kennedy Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. - Marcel Proust If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice. - Meister Eckhart I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new. - Ralph Waldo Emerson The deepest craving of human nature is the need to be appreciated. - William James As each day comes to us refreshed and anew, so does my gratitude renew itself daily. The breaking of the sun over the horizon is my grateful heart dawning upon a blessed world. - Adabella Radici I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder. - G.K. Chesterton For each new morning with its light, For rest and shelter of the night, For health and food, for love and friends, For everything Thy goodness sends. - Ralph Waldo Emerson | Praise the bridge that carried you over. - George Colman He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has. - Epictetus We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures. - Thornton Wilder Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all. - William Faulkner If you want to turn your life around, try thankfulness. It will change your life mightily. - Gerald Good We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude. - Cynthia Ozick No one is as capable of gratitude as one who has emerged from the kingdom of night. - Elie Wiesel Gratitude is a vaccine, an antitoxin, and an antiseptic. - John Henry Jowett Life without thankfulness is devoid of love and passion. Hope without thankfulness is lacking in fine perception. Faith without thankfulness lacks strength and fortitude. Every virtue divorced from thankfulness is maimed and limps along the spiritual road. - John Henry Jowett There is a calmness to a life lived in Gratitude, a quiet joy. - Ralph H. Blum To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven. - Johannes A. Gaertner Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. - Melody Beattie Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough. - Oprah Winfrey The unthankful heart discovers no mercies; but the thankful heart will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings. - Henry Ward Beecher To live a life of gratitude is to open our eyes to the countless ways in which we are supported by the world around us. Such a life provides less space for our suffering because our attention is more balanced. We are more often occupied with noticing what we are given, thanking those who have helped us, and repaying the world in some concrete way for what we are receiving. - Gregg Krech If a fellow isn't thankful for what he's got, he isn't likely to be thankful for what he's going to get. - Frank A. Clark |
Links
Zen Habits – Living a Life of Gratitude
See Gratitude Everywhere
Psychology of Gratitude
Gratitude as a Spiritual Practice
How Gratitude Can Change Your Life
Grateful for Friends
