The Discipline of Gratitude

Today is World Water Day – a United Nations celebration of the vital importance of water for our lives and for the planet.

Here’s a quote from my upcoming book Downstream from Eden:

"Biologically, our bodies are about 60% water; newborns are closer to 75% but by their first birthday, they’re down to about 65%. Our brains stay around the mid-70’s and blood is 83% water. Every cell in our body contains water and every cell membrane has a meticulous arrangement for allowing water in and keeping it out so cells don’t just disintegrate. Water is the crucial mechanism for transporting nutrients to our cells and shipping away the waste."

"In a number of extraordinary ways, as high school biology students learn, water is ‘biophilic’. It’s chemical structure and behavior is uniquely suited to the biological needs of all living things from blue-green algae to blue whales - and creatures like us."

"The complexity and power of water humbles us. Our utter dependence on it helps us appreciate the gift of water that keeps us alive to enjoy life. As St. Francis of Assisi wrote eight hundred years ago, “Praised be my Lord for our sister water; who is very useful to us and humble and precious and pure.”

In the previous post I spoke about reverence and worship as the first discipline for living joyfully and responsively in our downstream-from-Eden world. I believe that the second discipline is

the discipline of gratitude

The gifts of water – rain, dew, rivers aquifers and springs – are bequeathed to us freely, as are the assets of earth, sun, oxygen and life itself. Since we neither created nor earned these gifts, we could take them for granted, assume they are a given. In fact, they are – given!

The appropriate response, surely, is gratitude for the gift. Embracing the richness of nature as an expression of God’s generosity and joy, I respond with gratitude for both for the gifts themselves and for the love of the Giver. Many thoughtful people are grateful – to life, Mother Nature, the cosmos. Those who regard God as the giver have a personal ‘someone’ to whom they can direct their thanks.

Gratitude opens our eyes and makes us more observant; it expands our joy and deepens our appreciation of the value of these gifts. Gratitude helps us express our humanity. It gives us voice to translate vague feelings of privilege into words of thanks. Gratitude changes our attitude towards the creation, heightens our sense of privilege and erases our notions of entitlement.

Gratitude alerts us to our natural carelessness that would wantonly waste or degrade the gifts of water and air, earth and ocean, and the vast biosphere of which we are a part. Gratitude can motivate us to protect and preserve these incredible gifts around us.

Sometime today, join me, join the world in expressing thanks for the amazing gift of water – rivers, rain, clouds, dew, our own blood, sweat and tears, waterfalls, glaciers, wells and sanitation systems. Pray for the mothers and young girls walking miles today to find water and bring it home to their families, for farmers whose crops are withering for lack of rain – and for people around the world desperate for the water of life.

Make this a day of thankfulness.

Image Sources:
WWD - 2012 - Aquaticinformatics
World Poster - Right to Say
Water in Hand - The Adventure Project
Boys Getting Water - Foreign Policy Blogs