How does gratitude help me to see the good in the world?

“It is not the answer that enlightens but the question.” Eugene Ionesco

I had such a need to understand, to analyze everything, to be sure, to find the answer so I could live. One day, I realized that I was getting old and if I wanted to live instead of just exist, I best live my questions.

To do that I found it necessary to decide that life is trustworthy. What do I mean by that? I mean that creation is one and it is constantly and inexcusably dedicated to its evolution. We are part of that evolution but not the center of it. We either contribute to the growth of consciousness or we jeopardize it.

Author and theologian Cynthia Bourgeault (Returning to Essentials: Teaching an Alternative Orthodoxy, disc 1 (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2015), CD, MP3 download) says “God (Life) is rapturously delighted in every human being whose heart breaks open and blooms. Then, as human beings come to their glory, the world comes to its glory. It’s a view which is inclusive, recognizing that human beings on all paths are called to glorification, to the full emergence of the human being. It’s evolutionary in that we are a work in progress, both individually and collectively. Creation itself is not static but dynamic.” (Italics are mine.)

Several years ago, my stepmother found herself faced with Macular Degeneration. Her range of vision was getting smaller and smaller. Even what she could see was becoming quite blurry. She finally moved from her home into assisted living. My son, who I consider my teacher, went to visit his grandmother and she was lamenting her situation. She said, Why me? Why is this happening to me? And my son respectfully and lovingly replied, “Grandma, why not you?”

I find that response a dynamic question. It set her up for acceptance. It baited her to move from WHY questions to HOW questions. How am I going to deal with this? Am I grateful for all the years of sight that I was given? Am I willing to take the energy my frustration and anger has created and use it to discover how to live lovingly and productively with this loss of my sight and my independence? I’m grateful to say that is exactly what she did. And I have no doubt that she was grateful to her grandson for his question. She didn’t need sympathy, she needed reality.

My son has taught me, helped me see the good in the world. One of his favorite sayings is “Every day’s a good day, Mama.”