Gratefulo Recipient

This phrase came to mind today as I was pondering the gifts of my life.  Sometimes  you hear the words "Grateful Recipient" applied to someone who received a transplant - heart, kidney, bone marrow etc.  Sometimes you know who the donor is and other times you don't but the receiver is definitely grateful.

I thought about it this morning as I was leaving a morning walk at Innis Woods Metro Park in Columbus.  I got there at 9 AM after dropping Addie off at Band Camp and almost had the whole park to myself.  It is beautiful beyond words - with walking in the forest, herb gardens, a children's garden, a rose garden, streams and fountains and pine trees and hostas and impatience and zinnias and on and on and on.

 I would walk awhile and sit on a bench and meditate or pray or just BE present to the beauty and the wonder of it all.  It is a Metro park so that our taxes help pay for it and I know there are a slew of volunteers that devote hours to weeding and planting.  And I get to be -  for an hour on an overcast Monday morning - a grateful recipient.










This was exactly how I felt this weekend at Camp Christian.  I was part of an intergenerational mission trip (with a daughter and a granddaughter) and we helped to create a new free store and to clean up the "Block House" for the interim regional minister to live there.  We worked some but also worshipped, ate, talked, played games and got to be at camp.  I posted this picture Saturday evening  with these words: "Serenity at Camp after a days labor.  This kind of beauty does not happen on its own.  Grateful for all the faithful servants who gave money and time to make this place the Holy Ground that it is."

I think that I spend much of my life receiving gifts from the work of others and often (usually) unaware and maybe just unconscious.  There is so much creativity, beauty, art and wonder in this world that others have given us and sometimes we see it.  And find ourselves saying over and over again - Wow! Thank you!  And I believe this practice of gratitude opens our hearts and lifts our spirits.  At least that is how I feel this morning.


Here is a Blessing by Maxine Shonk

May the God of THANKSGIVING be with you, 

bringing you to a place in your heart that bursts with profound appreciation. 

May you be moved to say "Thank You" to  your spirit, to your creation, to your streuggles, and to your history for the gifts with which they have blessed you.

May your grateful heart spill out into the world that waits for your word of affimration and hand of healing and love.

May the God of THANKSGIVING be with you.