Albert Einstein is quoted as saying, “A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of others, living and dead, and that I must exert my self in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving.” Indeed it is really overwhelming to consider how much of my life comes to me with little effort on my own part.

Sometimes I like to just sit in one space and look around at all the tiny little pieces that make up the room I am sitting in. I like to imagine the person who designed the chair I am sitting on. Was it exciting to come up with this design. Do they love and appreciate it as much as I do? And I consider each part: the legs, the screws that hold them in place, the cushion, the fabric, the color of the threads that make up the fabric, the people who had a hand in each of these part of this single chair. Each of these people have / had a life with all of the same or similar concerns as I have in my life. I wonder what they were thinking on the day that made this bolt or shaped that piece of wood.

Of course I know that machines were part of the process but someone designed those machines and made the parts for those.

Sometimes I imagine myself out in the middle of a field left to my own devices. I give myself a week tops to survive. Maybe a month if the weather cooperates and two if I get hungry enough to actually kill something for food or manage to not eat anything poisonous. But really, I am pretty dependent on a whole lot of people for my existence.

Are their things to complain about? Sure. But it seems a far better use of my precious little time on this earth to be grateful for all that makes my life possible and to do my best to be a contribution and not a burden on the whole. When I forget, and I do, I just sit on my comfy chair, imagine myself in that empty field without it and return to humble gratitude for all that is my life.

I hope you have your own metaphorical (or literal) “comfy chair” you return to again and again as you continue to nurture gratitude for your precious life.

So May it Be,
Rev. Deborah