Grateful Friday

Gratitude, thankfulness, gratefulness, or appreciation is a feeling, emotion or attitude in acknowledgment of a benefit that one has received or will receive.

For each new morning with its light, 

For rest and shelter of the night, 

For health and food, 

for love and friends, 

For everything Thy goodness sends.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

I am grateful to have a place to lay my head at night, food readily available and clean air to breath and water to drink. I'm grateful for language which enables communication and the expression of love. I'm grateful for electricity, gasoline to fuel my vehicle and all that it takes for our electronics to work. I'm grateful for all these provisions, and so much more, which all come from the kind and loving hand of our Creator.

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; 

they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.

- Marcel Proust

I'm grateful for Rob and for Lisa and Kevin. I'm grateful for Netanya, Barb, Chana and Becky. I'm grateful for Tim and Paulette...for Rebecca and Emily. I'm grateful for Connie and my other Connie. I'm grateful for Chuck and Jim, and Dr. Yamaki. I'm grateful for Brent and Dana and Peter, for Josh and Ava and for all the little ones that make me smile. I'm thankful for each of the beautiful souls that the LORD entrusted to me to train and love - Morgan, Alex and Taylor - for they are the light of my life. I'm grateful for my sweet Daddy and my wise and loving Mother, of blessed memory.

We can only be said to be alive in those moments 

when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.

~Thornton Wilder

I'm grateful for days filled with purpose and nights filled with refreshing rest. I'm grateful for the festivals with so much meaning and symbolism, for Shabbat and the opportunities to share the prayers with those close to me, and for alone times that give me an opportunity to stretch my mind in new ways. I'm grateful for hospital times and meeting times. For eating times, singing times and reading times. I'm grateful for worship times, teaching times and debating times (mostly). I'm grateful for times of laughter and shared sorrow...for history. I'm grateful for the life each new day brings.

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget 

that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, 

but to live by them. 

~John F. Kennedy

I'm grateful that the LORD has given me the ability to feel gratitude and the constant desire to lift others up. I'm grateful for the enabling of the Ruach to walk the hard road, chose the right path and hold out my hand to others, offering love and understanding. I'm always grateful, humbled and honored when I can say, or be, or do, the very thing that someone needs at the very time they need it most.

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled 

by a spark from another person. 

Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those 

who have lighted the flame within us. 

~Albert Schweitzer

I'm grateful for the teachers in my life, most especially scholarly Torah teachers, and for the Ruach without whom I would have learned nothing regardless of what was taught. I'm grateful for those who study beside me and are willing to slog through the hard issues together towards knowledge and wisdom.

The deepest craving of human nature is the need to be appreciated.
 

~William James

I'm grateful for all those who make me feel wanted and needed - may G-d bless them always. May I continue to know when others need to feel the same, and I pray that I be able to repay them in kind. And I am grateful for all the times in sweet memory where I felt the warmth of belonging, of being wanted and needed.

Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. 

If you concentrate on what you don't have, 

you will never, ever have enough.

~Oprah Winfrey

I'm grateful for the opportunity and urging to express gratefulness, thankfulness and appreciation. The 'more' I receive is beyond words I can even express, even if not in material things. I will be eternally blessed and honored that the Holy One would look upon me and my loved ones with favor.

He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, 

but rejoices for those which he has.

~Epictetus