Pablum or Priming The Pump?

There was this little removable insert, a worksheet to be written on, in a magazine (Moment) I brought home from work. It has fourteen questions regarding gratitude to be filled out over time, and they’re good questions, to prime the pump about various things, people, events for which you are grateful. Some examples are–

What have you learned in life that you are most grateful for? It could be the wise words of a friend, something inspirational or the experience of a challenge that made you a stronger person? Why was this important for you?

Think of something money can’t buy. What do you appreciate most about this thing and what does it mean to have it in your life? How valuable is it to you?

Think of all the ways in which you are free. What elements of your freedom do you appreciate most and why does this freedom deserve your gratitude?

What in nature do you most appreciate? The sun, the breeze, the shades of green? The seasons changing, beautiful scenery?

What food do you appreciate the most? Why are you grateful for it? Does it taste good? Nourish you? Is it hard to source? Perhaps it completely comforts you?

Good probing questions, right?

One side has half the questions and this wisdom from Rumi–“If you only say one prayer in a day, make it thank you.” The other side, with the remaining seven questions, has a quote from Oprah–“Be thankful for what you have and you’ll end up having more.”

I think Oprah’s words speak to why (or maybe ninety percent of why) I started doing my version of a gratitude journal almost ten years ago. Here’s the thing. Either (1)I haven’t yet reached the place of being truly thankful for what I have or (2)I don’t recognize how much more I actually have in these ensuing years (I may not have the eyes to see it or it may look different than I thought it would) or (3)Oprah’s full of shit and just offering some kind of pablum from an already wealthy person.

I once saw gratitude as a possible means to an end, like more stuff or more financial stability. It changed over time into something else, more like the Rumi thing, being grateful without the link to more coming, grateful because it just feels better, gratitude just for itself.

I’m not suggesting that Oprah is actually saying if you want more, practice gratitude, but that perhaps she’s merely reporting on how this works. If you do A, B will follow, as night follows day. I had a coffee mug that said “gratitude is the open door to abundance.” Waiting for some imagined abundance seems like a kind of rot which could set in and change the very nature of a gratitude practice. We are always going to want more. I don’t remember noticing having more stuff just because I was working gratitude. I wouldn’t know how to quantify it. Maybe I have a deeper appreciation for what I already have, I hope so anyway.

The two always seem linked in the personal growth or meditation literature. Gratitude creates the conditions for more abundance. Yet, I suppose it’s OK to start a journal for that reason, anything to just begin, for homo economicus. We are acquisitive after all, we want more, more, more and that won’t change. But there’s something about the spirit of it that feels off for me. It’s the coupling of a spiritual practice with an economic one. Oprah and others may be stating an actual fact, maybe that does happen, but it often occurs to me like checking the ending of a book first so it informs your reading. I just can’t see how it doesn’t affect or infect your gratitude practice. Hopefully, you just start the Inquiry Into A Gratitude-Inspired Life and learn how good it is for the soul, even without any results reducible to dollars and cents.

I make no claims to expertise in this, it’s just stuff I’m poking at as 2018 comes to a close. I’m grateful for the moments you have taken on this journey with me this year.

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