Gratitude
Susan Reviere
October 19, 2026
Dear Friends,
I have said many times that gratitude is my ‘personal flotation device.’ It lifts me up - keeps me afloat - when life inevitably presents an ocean of dukkha. When I feel fear, helplessness, anger…I shift my gaze to gratitude, and I can then begin to rebalance and feel fewer of the waves so intensely.
Gratitude does not ask us to ignore suffering - that would take us into spiritual bypassing and a sense of false transcendence. Instead it invites us to open more fully to the whole of our experience and to widen our field of awareness. It companions that suffering, offering it a soft place to be held. Alongside what is difficult, there is also kindness. Alongside loss, there is love. Alongside uncertainty, there is this breath, this body, this precious moment of being alive.
Gratitude grows naturally through the practices of deep listening and deep seeing. When we listen deeply, with compassion, we begin to hear the countless ways we are held by others, by community, by the natural world. And we see that we are bound to all beings everywhere - we belong. When we see deeply, we recognize that nothing arises independently. Our lives are woven together through innumerable acts of care, generosity, and interconnection. And we see that we live in love. From this understanding, gratitude is not a rote and mindless recitation…it is a portal to our deepest engagement with this life and with each other.
As gratitude deepens, a quiet and courageous joy weaves its way into the fabric of our experience, a recognition of abundance in this breath, this step, this tree, this pebble… It is the joy of recognizing abundance in the midst of impermanence, of discovering that even in challenging times there is much that sustains us.
In this way, gratitude nourishes generosity, generosity nourishes letting go, and letting go opens the heart to greater freedom. Perhaps this is why gratitude remains such a powerful practice: it helps us remember what is here, what is given, and what is possible, right in the midst of our everyday lives.
With gratitude for your presence in our sangha,
Susan
