Three dimensions of gratitude

Gratitude is a secret energy source, available to everyone, under all circumstances. Gratitude is the elixir of life - vital, so very vital. And practical, oh my gosh! Gratitude is informing and shaping true feelings. It is about an awareness of good, gratitude is about the acknowledgment of good, about being satisfied with good. It empowers the courage to bear up if the odds are against us, it upholds the patience to confront anything that is dragging us down, it inspires grace under pressure.

I found in the practical application of the spiritual law of good in my daily experience that gratitude has three dimensions, at least, and each one deserves a mental and practical visit:

The first is intensity. How deep is the feeling of gratitude? How thorough is our gratitude, our sense of acknowledgment of good in the divine creation, in the forever now? Is it a light-weight, easily to be pushed out of the window gratitude? Does it have a foundation? Is it something like a dilution or surrogate for real feelings? The real deal is intense, heartfelt gratitude, it nourishes, informs and carries like the ocean carries cruise liners with ease. How intense is your gratitude?
 
The second is frequency. Is gratitude something for just one day? Albert Einstein is quoted saying: "There are only two ways to live your life: One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." Frequency. We live in the presence of omnipotent, omniscient, omni-active good, every moment. It will not get any better than this. So frequency is about every day. Can it be not just in the morning but in the evening, too? How about around noontime, too? And what about each hour, or minute? Or second? How frequent is your gratitude?

The third is density. If you are grateful for one thing - what is this one thing and how is it connected to so many other things, events, influences? Can the density of your gratitude improve? If you are grateful for a spiritual idea - can it wrap itself around the awareness that perhaps someone taught you this idea (in the Bible, in spiritual teachings) and took the effort to write it down? Can the gratitude include individuals and institutions which over time and space have carried on the torch of spiritual knowledge and wisdom? How much good can be included in one moment of appreciation? How dense is your gratitude?
 
Good questions to ponder are all of the above, I find. Here is a little summary: How deeply grateful can we be? How honest can our gratitude be? How often can we be grateful? For how many graces of Spirit, for how many aspects of divine goodness can one be grateful at the same time? Can this number increase? Can our understanding of God’s goodness become richer, more colorful? Can the infinite God become more meaningful to us, more real to us? Gratitude is all about an honest active use of spiritual awareness of good. And it glows in all three dimensions: intensity, frequency, density.

Gratitude is like tea-time in a cozy home. Cartoon by Michael Leunig