Gratitude

[mrkstvns]

As our Thanksgiving holiday approaches, we should think about the meaning of Gratitude. We should think about how we find it, know it, and express it.

When I think about the meaning of Gratitude, I am reminded of the story of Shukla.

Long ago, in a long-forgotten land in Africa, there lived a tribal chief and his faithful servant, Shukla. The chief and Shukla developed a great friendship and Shukla was always by the chief's side in every event the tribe experienced.

The chief loved nothing more than being in the woods, honing his woodcraft by hunting the many types of animals that lived there. 

One day in the deepest part of the forest, the chief took aim at an enormous deer, and shot it right between the eyes!  "Shalabat!"  exclaimed Shukla, which is the word for "Thank you, Oh Great One!"

As the chief was removing the arrow from the deer, he sliced off the end of his finger. "Shalabat!", exclaimed Shukla.  This made the chief  very angry, and when they returned to their tribal lands, the chief had Shukla thrown in prison.

A few days later, the chief went out hunting by himself and went even deeper in the woods than he had before. He was suddenly surrounded by a rival tribe and taken prisoner.  The tribe were preparing to sacrifice the chief to the Gods when they noticed that the chief was missing part of a finger.

"We can not give God a damaged human," they said, so they let the chief go.

When the chief returned to town and told his tale, Shukla bowed profusely, saying, "Shalabat! Shalabat! Shalabat!"

"Why are you so thankful?" the chief asked.

"Because," Shukla replied, "If I had been with you, they would have sacrificed me."

[The Latin Scot]

I think it would be especially appropriate to include this, perhaps one of our nation's greatest sermons on gratitude:

Quote

Washington, D.C.
October 3, 1863

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward,
Secretary of State