Saying Thank You

I'm slowly savoring one of the most beautiful books I have read in recent memory.  The book, One Thousand Gifts:  A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are by Ann Voskamp is without question one I will return to again and again.  It is a book that will have a permanent home on my shelf and is one I have already given away to beloved friends.  While I do not know Ann personally, she is an amazing writer and I have long been a fan of her incredible blog.  In reading her writing, I feel I have gotten to know her as a woman, a mother, a wife, a writing mentor, an encourager, an inspiration and if we were to meet in person, hopefully a friend.  Hers is a book that causes you to pause, ponder, and see with renewed vision the beauty of the life you have been given...right now.  Right where you are.  It teaches and reveals her journey toward discovering and uncovering the wonder in the ordinary and the abundance in the simple.

I have had the book for several months and only today did I finish reading chapter three. I want to savor every word as I'm reading it- often rereading just to enjoy how she has described something, or reading just a little bit at a time so I can truly think upon what she has said and what it means for my life.  It is so lovely.  Here is a passage from what I read today that reminded me that practicing gratitude requires effort, intentionality and courage.  A great reminder for me as my days of late often blur together in a whirl of "sameness"...
     
- "I know there is poor and hideous suffering, and I've seen the hungry and the guns that go to war.  I have lived pain, and my life can tell:  I only deepen the wound of the world when I neglect to give thanks for early light dappled through leaves and the heavy perfume of wild roses in early July and the song of crickets on humid nights and the rivers that run and the stars that rise and the rain that falls and all the good things that a good God gives.  Why would the world need more anger, more outrage? How does it save the world to reject unabashed joy when it is joy that saves us?  Rejecting joy to stand in solidarity with the suffering doesn't rescue the suffering.  The converse does.  The brave who focus on all things good and all things beautiful and all things true, even in the small, who give thanks for it and discover joy even in the here and now, they are the change agents who bring fullest Light to all the world.  When we lay the soil of our hard lives open to the rain of grace and let joy penetrate our cracked and dry places, let joy soak into our broken skin and deep crevices, life grows.  How can this not be the best thing for the world?  For us?  The clouds open when we mouth thanks." 

                          - Chapter 3: First Flight, p. 58

 In my beginning of practicing this new rhythm of thanks, I confess my tendency toward seeing and being thankful for only what is most obvious. I ache to see with renewed vision all that God has waiting for me hidden behind the veil of deep gratitude.

Thank you, Ann for daring me to seek Him with new eyes. It is changing my life for the better.