Week 1: Learning

Maria Stanek Burnham ’01

My AP Literature class just started reading the book The Things They Carried by Minnesota author Tim O’Brien, and just prior to the start of class today, one of my students quietly approached my desk. 

“Mrs. Burnham, I have to tell you something. I read ahead in the book. I hope that’s okay.” 

I reassured him that reading ahead is a good sign–one that means he’s liking the book. 

After my positive comment, he lifted his head a little higher and with a twinkle in his eye said, “I couldn’t put it down. I just love it so much already.” 

And that’s it. That’s what I’m grateful for this holiday season – learning. 

Learning is such a beautiful, messy thing. As a high school English teacher, one of the joys of the job is that I literally witness lightbulb moments regularly. A student falls in love with our class novel and another finally learns where that pesky comma belongs. Every day I learn new slang words from the kids like “drip” and “low-key” and how they’re used in a sentence. Because I’ve recently changed schools, I’ve learned a lot about what I need in my professional environment to be happy and about the skills I both possess and lack. I’ve learned that making friends as an adult isn’t easy but it is possible. And I’ve also learned hundreds of new names. I’ve reread books that I now have to teach but in the past have only read for fun, and I’ve learned that seniors are difficult to win over because they’re beelining to the exit of high school to make it to the threshold of adulthood. 

I’m always learning. Always. The people around me are learning, too. 

What have you learned lately that gives you gratitude? Painful or joyful, think of what you learn in the little moments and the big milestones. 

How magical. How spiritual.

Week 2: Grateful for Food

Nritya Sultana ’08

Food. Food is something I will always be grateful for. Not only because I was intake-controlled to the point of malnourishment in my abusive marriage. But I love to eat. Always have. I am a foodie 100% (as long as it’s vegetarian and it is also the way to my heart).

Hunger is never too far away from you. All you need is not physical sight, but the vision of the heart.

• Is Raul skipping out on your monthly group brunch?
• Does your lab partner Fatima miss lunch?
• Who keeps your elderly neighbor Susan company?
• Why is Patty losing weight since she started dating Jason?

One cannot truly understand hunger unless one has experienced it. It never leaves you. The uncertainty of when food will be available or even permissible.

We don’t realize how lucky we are to eat whatever we want, whenever we want, wherever we want, how much we want.

According to Feeding America, the average American family of four throws out $1,600 a year in produce. That’s almost $408 billion each year.

With 1 in 5 children hungry in the US, imagine what that $408 billion could do.

Give thanks always. Because…

• Blessed are we who are emerging from hunger.
• Blessed are we who have escaped hunger.
• Blessed are we who have never known hunger.

Week 3: The Little Things

Stephenie Och ’91

Most days my life is very hectic. I get up early, wait for my son’s nurse to arrive for the day, grab a quick cup of coffee and hurry off to work so that I can get home by the time his shift ends to care for my son again.

Today I curled up on the couch in front of the window display of fluffy white snow falling. I was holding a steaming cup of hazelnut coffee with just the right amount of cream and sugar, and a good book in my hands. My daughter’s little gray kitten, Bean, was snuggled up beside me.

As I sat there pondering in the quiet of my living room, I wondered if life could get any better than this. I am so grateful for the little things in life and a moment in time to simply just enjoy it.

Week 4: God’s Love Endures Forever—Today

Mary Reuter, OSB

Gratitude thrives in alertness. A spurt of humor catches my attention, and I laugh. The delicate flower of a dandelion surprises me and I marvel. I see my grandpa reach his arms to a puppy and he and I chuckle. The rhythm and melody of a favorite song interrupt my attention and stir my heart, body and memories. News of a friend’s car accident pushes me to ask: “What lesson am I to learn from this suffering?” All these responses can be expressions of appreciation. The events were able to happen because my attention was caught. They interrupted my everyday thinking and actions.

Sometimes we think of events of gratitude as “warm fuzzies” that give us warm hearts and delight. While this is sometimes true, we also need to exercise effort to live with awareness that allows us to notice and be touched. Often, we are engrossed in efficiency, speed, and concern that absorbs our attention. Unless the person, thing or event is forceful, we don’t notice it. Are we able to be interrupted, let the happening touch us, and respond even though its impact might be slight or moderate? Scott Russell Sanders, in his article, “A Private History of Awe,” gives us an example he easily could have missed. He was caught by a “piercing fragrance.”

Looking up, I saw a woman sitting perhaps twenty feet away, slowly peeling an orange. Sunlight pooled in her lap, illuminating the deliberate movement of her hands. When she had stripped away the last curls of rind, the plump orange lay in her palm like an egg.  It looked so vibrant, so potent, it might have been the egg from which the whole universe was hatched. Then the woman broke it apart, slid one section into her mouth, closed her eyes, and chewed. After a minute or so, she ate another section, then a third, and so on until she had finished. As I watched her eat, I felt as nourished by that orange as by any food I had ever swallowed. The tang and smell and juicy abundance of the fruit filled me to overflowing.

Perhaps the holidays can give us pause to become aware of the blessings in our immediate surroundings.  Responses of gratitude can refresh our commitment to notice and receive gifts available in our daily lives. We have an opportunity to strengthen awareness and appreciation of the gifts we are being given and the gift each of us is.  The prophet Isaiah and Psalm 118 give us words to express our gratitude. “The favors of the Lord I will recall, the glorious deeds of the Lord, Because of all he has done for us . . . He has favored us according to his mercy and his great kindness” (Is 63:7).   “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; God’s love endures forever” (Ps.118). And I say, “Thank you, God.  Thank you, givers of all the gifts that slip into my everyday life.”