Food For Thought On Gratitude
Each night in my community’s only soup kitchen, 50-100 homeless men and women are served a hot meal. The people who serve them are volunteers from local churches. Last night I participated for the first time. I didn’t know what to expect. When the evening started, I considered myself someone incredibly grateful for her blessings. Imagine my suprise to receive, from these strangers, the gift of an improved attitude on gratitude.
People lined up inside and out for what was perhaps their only meal of the day. Though the main course was home cooked by several of the volunteers, even they would admit that the meal was nothing fancy. But despite the meal’s simplicity, something extraordinary happened last night.
Over and over again I heard expressions of gratitude. Gratitude for the food and gratitude for the volunteers. Gratitude for the warmer weather and gratitude for the trees. And even gratitude for the town which had no home for them. In nearly two hours of being with people who have so few resources, I heard not a single complaint. “It was a good day; better than most,” said one man.
I couldn’t help but think of the complaints I had uttered that day. I recalled a conversation earlier in the day when a friend and I complained about our stock market losses from the economy. What did I have to complain about, I now wondered? I realized I had volunteered just in time for a unique lesson on gratitude. Thanks to the men and women I met last night, I will carry into the holiday season and beyond a new gratitude for just how truly and richly blessed I am and a nobler way to demonstrate it.
Suggestion Action Items:
Research has shown that people who complain less are more positive and that being more positive has a long list of benefits including:
- They live longer
- They’re healthier
- They have more friends and better social lives
- They enjoy life more
- They’re more successful at work
Sounds good, right? So here are a few ideas on how to get started turning things around!
- Take stock of the items you’ve recently been complaining about at work and/or home. How much of your complaining was complaining for the sake of complaining versus complaining about matters you really desire to change? Discard the list of unproductive complaining. Move on to the next bullet to address action items for the other list.
- With regard to the actions you desire to change, are you complaining and then taking action? Or does your action stop with the complaining? Try to identify one item today that you’re complaining about that you desire to change. Take one small step towards changing it.
- Nurture Gratitude: Start and maintain a daily gratitude journal. Each day record 3-5 things (no item is too small!) for which you are grateful.
- Give Gratitude: William Arthur Ward said “Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” In the next week, identify one way to make the day of someone for whom you are grateful.
