Doing Gratitude--Listening For Needs

      There are certainly many ways to show our gratitude for friends and family:

•   thank you notes, letters and phone calls
•   sharing our love and talents
•   providing comfort during times of stress and illness
•   praying for them
•   and one of my favorites, listening for their needs.  

     This last expression of gratitude may be one of the most difficult, since it requires that we are really paying close attention to what is being said.  I am sometimes guilty of spending more time formulating a response than attentively listening. This can be a death knell to real communication, since often times needs are not openly and easily expressed.  Understanding them may be more a matter of our sensitive observation, and reading between the lines to identify the intent of what someone is saying.  So, really listening is essential if we are to truly understand the needs of others.

Really listening is an act of love and gratitude.

     Listening attentively and allowing others to fully speak their mind is an art.  More than that, it is an act of love and gratitude.  It says, "I appreciate our relationship so much that I am willing to listen to you until you are all talked out; to allow you to explore your emotions  until both you and I come to understand what it is you are feeling and needing."  Thus approached, listening becomes an expression of compassion, love, and for the listener, self-discipline; and who among us couldn't use more self-discipline?
      Hopefully, we all know someone who is a great listener, since listening is one of the most priceless gifts we can extend to another.  My mom was a wonderful listener.  As a  bride-to-be I remember sitting with her on the beach, asking a lot of questions about how to make a home, plan meals, and be financially responsible.  She was attentive to my questions and my enthusiasm, and as she answered thoughtfully, she made me feel like she had all the time in the world for me.
      I have a niece who seems to share that same talent.  Recently I was visiting with her and her dad.  I hardly remember expressing a particular need that I was concerned about,  but she heard.  A few days later I received a phone call from her offering a solution.  I was touched by her thoughtfulness.  Not only had she heard what I said, she heard the desire behind it.  Her gratitude for family, and her sense of compassion, caused her to really think about how she might be of help.  How grateful I am, not simply for her listening ears, but for her listening heart.  

     Talking is a big part of life, and we all find ourselves engaged in conversations.  Striving to really listen, and allowing others the privilege of fully speaking, is a wonderful art to cultivate.  It will strengthen our relationships, give us greater knowledge and understanding, and help us to form deep bonds of love and gratitude.   

     


TODAY'S  INSPIRED  QUOTATION:  "The first duty of love is to listen."   Paul Tillich



Photo Credit: Perry Photos

Doing Gratitude--Sharing the Abundance

     I just love this time of year!  The mornings are cool, the air is fresh, and the apples on my tree are ready to pick.  These are end of summer apples, and I grab one or two most mornings to add to my oatmeal and cinnamon.  What a spoiler to pick fruit from the yard.

     This morning I also gathered green beans, wax beans, peppers, and a few tomatoes.  In the distance I heard the noisy, riotous sound of wild geese making their way across the foot hills, headed for their winter retreat. A sure sign that colder weather is coming, like it or not!

     It's hard to believe, it's nearly the end of September with the daytime temperatures still in the 80's and the nights just pleasantly cool.  Makes me wish that winter would never come!  I know that sentiment isn't shared by the ski and snow boarding fans, but this time of year is a taste of heaven to me.

     One of my neighbors is still picking late season peaches, my daughter just put up pears, and now the apples are fast approaching their peak.  This is truly a season of harvest and plenty in this corner of the world. A great season for sharing my abundance with friends, and giving thanks for the magic of nature.

     I suppose if we were blessed with this bounty all year long we might begin to take it for granted.  God, in His wisdom, allows us to enjoy it but once a year.  Then we get to look forward to it for the next twelve months!  

     In some ways, this evidence of plenty is also evidence of just plain old-fashioned work.  Nature's magic aside, it requires time to tend and grow a garden. Then more time and effort to can, freeze and dry all the produce, and to make the jams, jellies and fruit leathers.  But that work turns into joy during the winter as we take a bottle of tomatoes or peaches from the pantry shelf.  Or when we grab a bag of spinach from the freezer, or spread sweet, fruity jam on bread.  As good as it all tastes in season, it tastes just as wonderful--maybe more--when snow flies.

     Don't know about you, but I'm counting my blessings as I gather up the last bits of evidence that I was attentive to my gardening.  Beautiful yellow squash, a handful of beans, a few cucumbers and tomatoes remind me that with my effort and nature's cooperation, there is so much to appreciate.

     Before too long the lawn will be white with snow.  The apple tree will stand dormant. The sounds of geese will be a distant memory, but spring will come again, then summer, then another glorious fall.   What abundant reasons for rejoicing in the knowledge that God's world is a world of order and renewal.  I rest, assured that in due time I will repeat the work of spring planting, summer weeding and watering, and autumn's joyful activity of sharing and putting away the fruits of my labors.

TODAY'S  AWESOME  BLESSING:  Sharing from my garden with a neighbor!  


Photo credits:  Apples, by azfotos.com
                       Pears, by freefoto.com
                       Basket of vegetables, by Richard Shipp 

Doing Gratitude--Say a Little Prayer

     In 1967 Dionne Warwick sang,  "The moment I wake up, before I put on my makeup, I say a little prayer for you." (lyrics by Burt Bacharach and Hal David).  When I think of all the ways there are to express our gratitude, praying for those we love strikes me as being one of the most important and powerful ways of showing our concern and appreciation for them.
     Because prayers do have the power to call down the influence and intervention of our Creator, they constitute, in my mind, a wonderful combined effort in behalf of those we care for--our energies, combined with God's unfailing wisdom and support, to heal, encourage, remind, or in any other way intercede to bless lives.

     There are several things I love about sincere prayer:

• it has a calming and settling affect on the emotions of the one who is praying.
• in some studies, it has been shown to be effective in helping others to heal, even when they are unaware of the prayer (http://www.healingtherapies.info/prayer_and_healing.htm.)
• prayer does, indeed, connect to a higher power that has the ability to intercede in our behalf, or in behalf of the one for whom we are praying.
•   prayer is an act of humility and obedience to sacred direction, "Ask, and it shall be given you."  
• we are praying to our Heavenly Father, who loves us and is concerned for us and for those we love.  We are His children, and He is our Father, and we can be assured that He is listening.  Because He wants only the best for us, He will answer our desires in the way that will be for our greatest good.

 
     In the book, The Help, by Kathryn Stockett, Aibileen, a courageous black maid, writes prayers asking for divine intervention in behalf of her friends.  Minny, another maid, says that Aibileen's prayers are powerful, and that many of their group have been blessed by her unique gift to have her prayers answered. No doubt, as Aibileen wrote her prayers she was focused on the needs of another, and attempted to express, in words that would reach the ears of God, her desire for her friends to receive needed blessings.
     Whether we write our prayers, or humbly kneel in prayer, or prostate ourselves in prayer, or join with a group of friends to pray, our prayers in behalf of others can create change.  Without question, prayer in behalf of others is an unselfish act of love, an expression of our gratitude for having them in our lives, and an outward display of our concern for their welfare.  Prayer does, indeed, have power!

TODAY'S GENTLE ENCOURAGEMENT:  Consider taking a few moments today to reflect on the needs of someone you love.  Write or say a prayer for that person, pouring out your desires to God in their behalf.