Читать книгу Active Hope - Joanna Macy - Страница 38

At times gratitude comes easily. If you’re falling in love, having a run of good luck, or just generally delighted with how things are going, appreciation and thankfulness might feel natural. But what if there isn’t so much to feel happy about? What about the times when relationships go sour, you experience injury or violation, or the landscape of your life looks bleak?

If you’re facing a tragedy in your life or in the world, searching for reasons to be grateful might initially feel uncomfortably close to denial. But you don’t have to feel thankful for everything that’s happened. It is more a case of recognizing there’s always a larger picture, a bigger view, and that it contains both positive and negative aspects. To find our power to see the hard parts clearly and respond constructively, we need to draw on resources that bring out the best in us. Gratitude does this. It’s a resource we can learn to tap into at any moment. Here’s an example.

Julia had just seen the news. She felt outraged. A school in a refugee camp had been bombed, children killed, she was so full of fury she could hardly speak about anything else. Then, for a moment, she thought of the reporters who covered this story. They had risked their lives so that she could be kept informed. The news editors may also have stuck their necks out, choosing to include this item rather than the latest celebrity gossip. As she thought about the steps they had taken, she felt grateful. Her gratitude reminded her she wasn’t alone in caring about what happened.

When violations and injustice occur, trust is often a casualty. Loss of trust makes it harder to experience gratitude; even when help is given, the distrustful part of us may wonder what the hidden agendas are. Trust levels are falling; surveys show that people are about half as likely to trust others as they were fifty years ago.¹⁶ Will it be possible to turn the tide? Trust and gratitude feed each other: to deepen our capacity for thankfulness in difficult times, we need to learn from those who have mastered this quality.