Thank you, danke schoen, gracias, gratzie, merci, tak, toda rabah, pan parius,  Go raibh mile maith agaibh ….I discovered a list of ways to express gratitude that if layed out end to end would likely surround the room I am sitting in as I write this blog entry. Although I express gratitude throughout my day, 365 days a year, September 21st was named World Gratitude Day. Its origin came through spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy who has since passed. In 1965, he was sitting at a Thanksgiving dinner table in Hawaii and invited those assembled to acknowledge their blessings. They agreed to do so each year on this day. Twelve years later, the United Nations Mediation Group designated the day as well.

They declare it as a “holiday for all peoples, a day of meditation for all religions, a day of celebration for all humanity, united by knowledge of simultaneously shared emotion, a day when triumph of the spirit can make a world community.”  I like the idea that we are united by a common desire for peace, to feel a sense of belonging and that ultimately we matter and can make a difference. Although we may think we are separate, at our core, we really are one. That is the basis for all religion.

Some ideas to celebrate the day could include:

1. Making a gratitude list, naming all of your blessings.

2. Taking note of all of the people you are grateful to have in your life by writing their names and then saying them out loud.

3  Contact as many of them as you can either in person, by writing to them or calling them.

4  Send thank you notes.

5. Say thank you to the person in the mirror.

6. Pay it forward by doing a good turn for someone else.

My own gratitude list includes love in all forms, dear family and friends, vibrant good health, financial abundance, limitless opportunity, communication skills, all of the blessings showered on me, a beautiful home, the tools to do my work, including this laptop on which I am typing at the moment, freedom of choice, my Jeep that gets me where I need to go, always being at the right place at the right time.  An atty-tood of gratitude feeds the blessings.

Gratitude Quotes:

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought,  and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder. Gilbert K. Chesterton

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark  from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those  who have lighted the flame within us. – Albert  Schweitzer

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have  into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order,  confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a  stranger into a friend. Melody  Beattie

http://youtu.be/ZRe339H4Iwg  You Inspire Me, A Song of Gratitude by Skye Dyer