Deep Ecology Practice: Gratitude
Gratitude is a response to the gift of being alive on the Earth, supported by the soil and the air
--
Rooting in the universe, coming home to nature, does not ask of you a long journey. You have already arrived. Here upon the Earth, whether it is a calm day or windswept, you are part of the planet’s life, and blessed with awareness of being here.
This recognition is why many ancient spiritual practices begin in gratitude. We are glad for existence. I’m starting the Deep Ecology practice series here, with gratitude, because it sees and expresses our relationship with the world, our interbeing.
Unfortunately, many of us come to associate gratitude with obligation. In childhood you might have received a message that you ought to be grateful for what you have, since others don’t have it. In this way, gratitude becomes focused upon scarcity and who has what. Gratitude gets ungrounded and pulls people towards consumerism and competition.
We can liberate ourselves from this by celebrating life and the generous Earth herself, who holds us in existence.
Gratitude is not a cliché. It isn’t complacent.
Eco-philosopher Joanna Macy teaches that gratitude ‘is politically subversive… It helps inoculate us against the consumerism upon which corporate capitalism depends. It serves as a counterweight to the dissatisfaction with what we have and are, the craving and neediness inflamed by our political economy.’ [1]
Gratitude does not need to be about what you have, nor your circumstances. It can be generous, full of relationship, whether for people, or for the trees and moon and ocean. Reaching out with gratitude is not grasping. It celebrates and sees.
Gratitude has radical power. It strengthens positive purpose.
What things do you enjoy doing and bring up gratitude for you? Cooking, running, music, time with your children, reading a novel, some aspect of your work, watching sparrows gather and chatter, bringing in clean laundry: each of these moments may come with gratitude. Since each takes place upon the Earth, that gratitude nourishes our relationship with her.
Practice: Explore Gratitude
Bring to mind something you love about being alive. Be specific. Maybe it’s the taste of coffee, a particular smile, the gentle change of the light at dawn, the sound of rain, the feeling in your muscles after exercise. Or, if you like, be grand: creativity, love, looking into the sky and having a sense of being on a planet turning through space. Whatever brings gladness to your heart, take time to feel it, explore it.
You might choose to write what you love about being alive in a journal, or tell someone (a human friend, a cat, a tree…) about it.
Explore gratitude further by thinking of a place you love or loved, aspects of your own self you appreciate, gratitude for your body and breath, or thankfulness for some simple thing that has happened lately. A moment or two spent in warm appreciation is helps in meeting challenges with courage and kindness.
Practice: Gratitude for Food
A few moments to be grateful before or during eating is a Deep Ecology practice, because our food comes from our ecosystem to become a part of us. Paying attention to your food is paying attention to the ecosystem you are creating through the food you choose.
Expressing thanks for food is common in many spiritual traditions. For some of us it has become complicated, because food can be complicated, like the relationships within which we receive food. Could you let go of any lessons you may have received that you should be grateful because of what others don’t have? Can you allow gratitude to be a natural response to preparing and enjoying food?
Pausing before eating, you might consider that you receive the food from the Earth, a gift of the soils, sky, plants, soil creatures and the humans who have worked hard to produce it. Allow a feeling of gratitude and appreciation for the food to arise, express it in any way that feels right for you, perhaps with a simple word or gesture of thanks. You may wish to accept the food with a commitment to use its energy well, in service of working to reduce the suffering of other living beings.
[1] Joanna Macy and Molly Brown, Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work That Reconnects (New Society Publishers, 2014), p. 93.
