My Gratitude Journal

A couple of weeks ago I helped wth the church service. It was about spirituality and spiritual practices. Honestly, I didn't really know what either of them really were. And being that I don't believe in God, it makes it even harder. Can an atheist such as myself have a spiritual practice?

So in my portion of the service I asked those questions. It was the task of the minister, Kent, to answer them. He did a very good job. His answer (and I suspect there are many different answers) is that a spiritual practice is something tht is done regularly and intentionally to engange i or spiritual side. And spirituality involes humility (knowing that there re many parts of our lives over which we have no control) and recognizing our connections to the rest of the universe.

Prayer, obviously, can be a spiritua practice, because it is done regularly, with intention, and in it one submits both to a higher power (demonstrating humility) and also recognizes that one is connected to the world around. However there are other ways to engage in a spiritual practice. Kent told us that one of his was to write in his journal. Specifically, for one month he set out to write about only things for which he was grateful.

What a good idea! I thought. So I started a Gratitude Journal myself. It is one way for me to try to become more spiritual, which is something I would like to be but I don't really have the patience to meditate and reflect (and I certainly don't pray).

I've been doing this for a little over a week, and I've alread missed 4 days (I forgot). Funny how it can slip your mind if you aren't used to doing it every day. But I'll keep on trying, at least for a while longer. It is helpful to think about these things, rather than spend so much time dwelling on missed opportunities or things that didn't go my way.

And I am finding that even on so-called bad days, there is much that I have to be grateful for. And for the really bad days, Kent said, sometimes all you can write is that you are grateful to have made it through the day. Which, unfortunately, is not the case for far too many people.