Читать книгу Giving Thanks - M. J. Ryan - Страница 24

The most invisible creators I know of are those artists whose medium is life itself.

The ones who express the inexpressible—without brush, hammer, clay or guitar.

They neither paint nor sculpt—their medium is their being. Whatever their presence

touches has increased life. They see and don’t have to draw. They are the

artists of being alive.

—J. Stone

I spent several Christmases recently with a family that loves to give presents. Every

year, the floor around the tree was heaped with hundreds of gifts, so many that it

took the entire morning to open them all. But despite all that was given and

received, I would leave there every year feeling empty and alone. There had been

a plethora of presents, but no presence. This family gave so many gifts because

they didn’t know how to connect deeply to themselves and one another. And they

ripped through the mounds of merchandise, saying a pro forma “Thank you,” but

with no sense of true appreciation being expressed or received.

The experience was so powerful—the contrast between the material plenty

and the emotional lack—that it set me to thinking. That’s when I realized that

you can’t experience gratitude with a heart that’s closed. It’s just not possible.

That’s because gratefulness is only experienced in the moments in which we

open our hearts to life—to the beauty in this moment, to the possibility of

surprise in the next.

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