In many of our lives, “nature” is one of the most resplendent and consistent sources of generosity and gratefulness in our lives. When we encounter the majesty of oceans, fields, trees, animals, sky, birds, the sun…and so much more…we can feel immediately in touch with the paradox of our own majesty and our own smallness. Feeling both small and vast in the natural world can lead us swiftly to a sense of the sacred. And yet, we are also living in times when the sources of our greatest inspiration in the natural world are under threat from humanity’s legacy of choices.

Grateful Living offers us a way to be in active relationship with the natural world – to engage in our lives in ways that more deeply appreciate and also preserve that which we treasure most. We are inspired to sustain that which sustains us, through understanding more deeply the ways that we are inextricably bound to the world around us. And we can come into union with the generosity of nature in ways that are deeply humbling and informative. As the poet Hafiz says, “After all these years of shining, the sun does not say to the earth, you owe me…Imagine how a love like that can light up the whole world.”