Thanksgiving Practice: Day 3

Welcome to DAY 3 of our practice. Let’s begin…

Please close your eyes while you take three slow, deep breaths. Then open your eyes and read today’s commitment. Adaptation can be a wonderful thing. It allows us to quickly feel familiar with an experience, so that our energy and attention is freed up to encounter something unfamiliar. Our psyches love novelty when it comes to positive experiences, however, that can stand in the way of our appreciating everyday gifts and seeing and creatively acting on opportunities that come our way.

Let the words settle into your being: “In thanksgiving for life, I pledge to overcome APATHY by waking up to the opportunities that a given moment offers me and so to respond CREATIVELY to every situation.”

• • Throughout the day, make an effort to be alert to and act upon opportunities that might normally pass you by. The opportunity to learn; to be kind; to be courageous; to listen. Reflect upon the impact of your participation.
  • Experiment with imagining what it would be like if something you take for granted was no longer available to you. For example: electricity; running water; your eyesight; the roof over your head; your next meal…How do you feel about those things after imagining them not being accessible?
  • Stretch yourself in creatively responding to what arises today. Notice when you are drawn to take the easy way out of a situation and instead be creative in your response. In your conversations and actions, stretch your creative muscles and notice the impact.
  • Commit to being more awake and responding creatively to each situation as it arises.

“When we trust our creativity we encounter a supreme kind of enjoyment – an amazement at the natural unfolding of life beyond our ordinary way of looking at things. ~ Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche”

If you would like to explore this topic further, you might appreciate:

• Br. David’s essay Awake, Aware and Alert 
• Donovan Livingston’s Harvard Graduate School of Education Student Speech – a powerful example of a creative response to the opportunity in a given moment. (5-minute video)