Hakarat Hatov Recognizing the Good Nov 2, 2016

As the Hebrew month of Cheshvan begins, a month in which there are no big communal celebrations, just like nature around us here in the northern hemisphere, we too curl inward, attending to the tasks of living and dying, the wonder of simply being present to the blessing of an ordinary moment, recognizing the good. 

Yesterday afternoon I sat with a patient who was actively dying. Honored and awed by the wonder of simply being present at a completely sacred yet simultaneously ordinary passage of time. I attended to the tasks of living and dying, by recognizing the good, bearing witness to her delicately featured 91-year-old face, while her shrunken body curled inward.

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Throughout the month of November, I will post a photo (or perhaps a few) each day of something that invited me to pause and lifted up gratitude, joy, perhaps a quiver of awe in my heart the moment I stopped to be present and really see. By reviewing the image/images to share with you, the experience is engraved deeper in my consciousness, strengthening a reserve of gratitude and goodness to savor and draw upon when gloomy weather outside echoes inside, or vice versa. For me this is a devotional photographic journey for developing the soul quality of Hakarat Hatov, Recognizing the Good, a Jewish spiritual practice for cultivating gratitude. I may add writing some days, I may not; I’ll trust my inner compass to guide me.

I will include a link back to each Sunday’s I Heart Macro  post so you can participate anytime during the week as usual.

I look forward to receiving your written patches of thanks for this year's 8th Annual GratitudeQuilt! Send me an email: What are you grateful for in THIS moment?