Being Grateful for the Mud

The youngsters at Woodland Park steadily go residence with a plastic bag filled with muddy clothes. The dad and mom are sometimes at free ends over it the primary time it occurs, however quickly be taught to just accept it. Some even be taught to be pleased about it.

Tomorrow is the day we have put aside within the US for giving thanks. It goes with out saying, after all, that every single day is the appropriate day for gratitude.

In occasions of hysteria or loss or despair, I usually hear my mom’s voice urging me to rely my blessings. It is a behavior I’ve cultivated all through my life as a option to calm myself. This doesn’t suggest a diminishment or minimization ache or struggling, nevertheless it’s option to shift my perspective on present troubles, permitting me to see issues in context. As I rely the blessings for which I am grateful — household, mates, neighborhood, well being, alternatives, accomplishments — I am reminded of these facets from which I draw the power to maneuver ahead within the face of adversity. As we go round our Thanksgiving Day tables and share these issues for which we’re most grateful, we rely our blessings collectively, a easy and highly effective reminder that life is nice.

One can argue, after all, that each one of this gratitude is a form of papering over, a brag; that as we sit round our overladen tables we’re surrounded by a world of ache and struggling. Our blessing are actual, as is that ache and struggling. On the lately concluded Worldwide Convention for Happiness and Properly-being in Schooling hosted by TH College in Hanoi, keynoter Erin Threlfall, major college principal on the Panyaden Worldwide College in Thailand, shared a quote from Vietnamese Buddhist monk, instructor, and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh: “There might be no lotus flower with out the mud.” The bodily presence of TH College itself, seen from above, is a lotus flower. 

Mild doesn’t exist with out the darkish. Happiness doesn’t exist with out unhappiness. Gratitude can not exist with out struggling. “Most individuals are afraid of struggling,” he wrote, “However struggling is a form of mud to assist the lotus flower of happiness develop.” 

As we collect as we speak in thanksgiving, let’s not overlook to additionally be pleased about the mud.

Completely happy Thanksgiving!

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