Gratitude


I keep starting this post, then erasing the words and trying again. I've been wondering how best to express my feeling of gratitude for the support and luck that make possible the arc of my days.

I am grateful to be able to send my children to school and nursery school where they are nurtured by caring teachers. I am grateful that I have a babysitter who picks my youngest up from nursery school three days a week, walks patiently home with him, feeds him lunch, plays with him, and loves him, so that I can write (that she happens to be a qualified teacher in her country of origin, who speaks five languages, is our fortune, too, though I'm rooting for her to get her Canadian qualifications so many more children can benefit from her gifts).

I am grateful to have a grant, and an advance, that allows me to focus on my fiction writing (and pay for said nursery school and babysitting time). I am grateful my husband has a job that covers our household expenses, so that my grant/advance can go toward writing time.

I am grateful for my family's willingness to make room for my crazy triathlon project, and the countless hours of training it's required (hours from which they are excluded).

I am grateful to live in a country with universal health care.

I am grateful for clean water from our taps, for fresh ingredients from which to prepare healthy meals, for the shelter and space of our home and yard, for safe sidewalks, and a community-oriented neighbourhood.

I am grateful for all of these things, while knowing that my fortune is neither deserved nor earned, and that the individual pursuits of art and athleticism are gifts. They are not mine for the taking. They could not exist without the offerings of many others, and of even larger, structural offerings that are pure luck: where I was born and to whom. I wonder sometimes how the relative few of us can bear to live with such wealth, when so many live with less than a little. How can I?

What I'm saying is that my gratitude is mixed with guilt, and questioning. What luxury--to train my body to complete an arbitrary task that has nothing to do with real survival. What luxury--to sit and to think and to create in repose, without anxiety or fear or threat. Are my luxuries just for me? Is that how I'm using them, and if so, does that not express greed rather than gratitude?

:::

I've noticed an uptick in visitors reading this blog, and it would be a pleasure to hear your voices (thanks, Rebecca, for the inspiration: your post on engagement made me want to invite more engagement and conversation, here, too). So, what are your thoughts on being grateful/guilty? How do you take the luxury of your individual gifts and use them to satisfy something greater than your own comforts and desires?

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