Living gratefully requires practice.
It takes sustained effort to reclaim my whole past
as the concrete way God has led me to this moment.
For in doing so I must face not only today's hurts,
but the past's experiences of rejection or abandonment or failure or fear...
...grateful people learn to celebrate
even amid life's hard and harrowing memories
because they know that pruning is no mere punishment, but preparation.
When our gratitude for the past is only partial,
our hope for the future can likewise never be full.
Henri Nouwen, Turn My Mourning into Dancing
What if he's right?
dang.
ReplyDeletealso, how long is it taking you to get through this book... i think i'd frequently be putting it down/in the freezer.
ReplyDeletethe bookmark sits at page 18, at that quote...had the book for a week.
ReplyDeletenever thought of the freezer! I just want to throw it :-)
Joey puts books in the freezer on Friends when he can't read them anymore.
ReplyDeletebig sigh... it takes constant work to keep my perspective where it should be. It's so hard in the day to day life after such deep pain to be nothing but grateful. I have my moments... and then I have the "other" moments. And it does seem to go hand in hand with how much hope I have for the future, although I never really put two and two together before.
ReplyDelete