Gratitude

“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”
– L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

“Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.” A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Enormous Smallness

i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)…

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

e.e. cummings, American poet (1894-1962)

“In normal life we hardly realize how much more we receive than we give, and life cannot be rich without such gratitude. It is so easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements compared with what we owe to the help of others.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German pastor who gave his life fighting Nazism during World War 2

“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” – Epicurus, ancient Greek philosopher 

Click HERE for Thanksgiving books for young readers. 

“If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.” – Meister Eckhart, medieval German theologian

Glory

Burgess, Matthew. Enormous Smallness: a Story of e.e. cummings. New York: Enchanted Lion Books, 2015.

Carlstrom, Nancy White. Glory. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2001.