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What a 5-Year-Old Taught Me About Gratitude

By Tony Mase

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 24Nov2008 Word count: 501 Viewed: 502 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

One beautiful summer day, shortly before he started kindergarten, my son, who was five-years-old at the time, and I were driving somewhere (more than likely a toy store :-)), when, seemingly out of nowhere, he asked me what I knew about this "God thing", as he phrased it.

As simply as I could put it, I shared with him my personal belief...

Essentially...

That One is All and All is One. That one Intelligent Substance manifests itself as what appears to be many elements of the material world.

Simply put...

We're all made from the same Stuff, a Thinking Stuff.

After I finished my simplified explanation of this concept, he sat there quietly for a moment or two, staring out the car window, then he looked at me and said...

"Daddy, that makes sense!"

And...

With "ah-ha" written all over his face...

He added...

"So that's why you're always telling me to love my neighbor as myself and to treat other people the way I want to be treated, because we're all one, right Daddy?"

At age five...

He got it! :-)

Not long after our "God talk", as he likes to refer to it, impressed by his insight and "feeling my oats", I guess, I decided to tackle a very simplified version of the concept of gratitude to the Formless (the one Intelligent Substance from which all things are made), the importance of expressing gratitude to the Formless, and the various ways in which we might express our gratitude to the Formless, with him.

As I was enthusiastically waning on and on (I guess I got a little carried away :-)) about how to express gratitude to the Formless, he sat there with a puzzled look on his face (okay, actually it was his "you idiot" look :-)).

Finally...

Obviously unable to take it anymore...

He piped up and said...

"Daddy..."

"Since we're all made from the same stuff, isn't saying thank you to someone else the same thing as saying thank you to the stuff?"

Hmmmmmm...

Hmmm...

Hmmm...

Hmmm...

Out of the mouths of babes. :-)

You know what?

He was absolutely right!

I frequently see folks going to great lengths in their effort to develop and incorporate an "attitude of gratitude" into their lives, lugging around special gratitude crystals, rocks, or stones, keeping special gratitude journals, and/or resorting to all sorts of other "props and crutches" as I like to refer to them, when *all* that's *really* required is developing the simple habit of saying "thank you".

I believe it was Meister Eckhart, the influential fourteenth century German theologian, philosopher, and mystic, who once wrote:

"If the only prayer you ever say in your whole life is 'thank you,' that would suffice."

No doubt about it!

And...

As I learned from my five-year-old...

We can continuously express that prayer of gratitude to the Supreme, for *all* we have and enjoy, by simply developing the habit of consistently saying "thank you" to one another.

Once again...

Thank you son! :-)

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