Thursday, July 20, 2017

Gratitude

When we have been unjustly hurt, our reaction might understandably be anger and resentment, and we might be motivated to retaliate. Let’s say we experience a great loss because of someone else’s actions against us – a life-changing and devastating loss. How do we get beyond vengeance against the one who caused the loss and move towards gratitude for what we had that was lost?  It’s a hard change of heart and mind: being thankful that we had the lost thing at all – a person, a job, a prized possession – for however long, rather than resentful for having been deprived of it. Gratitude can be a powerful avenue through the trauma of loss. It does not minimize the intense pain that always accompany the work of rebuilding one’s life in an entirely different context, but it can take away the feeling of anger and the conviction that a terrible injustice has been done, and it opens the way for thanksgiving and renewed trust in the world.