Gratitude

Last night I had the honer of attending another one of Daniel's classes at his home on a meditation on gratitude. I thought this was a great idea because I felt like I had come a long way from where I was last year at this time. Plus, I was not cooking Thanksgiving dinner which everyone else was grateful for. (I am not known as a good cook) Not my thing........

As I was driving I was praying out loud that God would not place any crazy people in my space tonight and that I would be really grateful. I had had a stresser of a day and just couldn't deal with it tonight. I arrived and was warmly greeted by the host and hostess. The guest were friendly and inviting. A new friend who I have just became acquainted with was there whose name is Joseph, whom we seem to share a rich background in New Mexico.

I had asked Joseph what was his line of work was and he replied, "a teacher".
OK, "what kind of teacher?" "Oh," he said, "I teach French and Spanish". " I guess you are very fluent" I said.....to late it was already out of my mouth...... He smiled and said, "Ana, you of all people should know this from our background in New Mexico." Embarrassed I added...... "Well, I only know enough to get arrested!" His reply as the whole room had stopped to listen in..... "Then let's not tell anyone shall we".

With that Daniel started the meeting and I sat there thinking of Mark Twain and a quote that always seemed to fit. It kind of goes like this" It is better to not say a thing than to open your mouth and let everyone know how really ignorant you really are."

Daniel had decided while preparing for the class that we were going to have a group discussion instead of a mediation. Oh great...... I thought knowing that I was not feeling like talking since I had already opened my big mouth......I guess I am putting my listening ears on.........

The man next me had started a group called "Love" and as it started out I was not quite understanding him....... I was thinking, Oh yeah I asked not to sit by someone like this.......But as I started to listen the man next to me began to talk about his new mission..... "Love" a group that meets and does things for the community. He started a month ago and 180 people had joined in the cause to give their time and help others......

They just delivered food baskets for Thanksgiving on their own and his volunteers were delivering them door to door. He told of a story that at the very end they were unloading baskets and a car was driving past the group very slowly.... He had this feeling that he needed to stop the car. He did and the guy driving had his wife, kids and mother in the car, said, "I didn't do anything wrong. we just want to go home. "

He said all he knew to do was to shove the food basket through the door. The man saw what he was doing and started to cry..... some of the volunteers that saw couldn't believe the emotions that was passing between the two men. Emails later flooded the group, of people who were blessed by witnessing what took place.

All the man could say was the gratitude he felt that the man excepted his gift. By doing that it completed the circle of the two being grateful to each other.
Another women began to talk and open about a relationship she had and how God had shown her that by looking at the heart of this other person's soul she could see the love that this persons had for her even though this person had been very tough on her.

The whole evening went on like that story after story and I sat in my silence I realized that I was grateful that I was allowed to sit among the giants.

Ana