Gratefulness

I recently spent the day at the Abbey of Gethsemani. I try to go there about once a month. Yesterday was an unusual day. Seventeen of the monks were isolated due to the spread of COVID. The 12:15 and 2:15 prayer services were not held in the Church but in their individual rooms. It was a quiet day. I sat outside in the cool breeze, watching the beautiful white clouds gently moving along and wrote in my journal. My journal writings were primarily about all the events for which I was grateful. Too often I get so busy in the activities of the day as well as thinking and planning about those events that are on my future calendar that I fail to stop, feel the weather, watch the clouds, and give expression of my thanksgiving. As Brother David Steindl-Rast has written, “Happiness does not make us grateful, but gratefulness makes us happy.”