#3 of The Four Most Important Things

“Thank you.”

Continuing from The Four Most Important Things by Ira Byock, M.D., in which he names Thank You as the third most important thing we can say —

He quotes Meister Eckhart’s classic line from the 14th century, “If the only prayer you say in whole life is ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.”

Several pages later, Dr. Byock writes, “In the act of saying thank you we expand ourselves.  Thanking people in an explicit way is an act of generosity.  By naming what we have been given, we remind ourselves of the surfeit of our experiences, of how replete we are.  We invest attention in what we have, rather than what we lack.”

I’ll prime the pump for you: Thank You for reading my blog.  Thank you for commenting.

We have a national holiday to remind us to be thankful, but why wait?

We have an old hymn to remind us to be thankful, so let’s try it: “Count your blessings, name them one by one…and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.”

Thank God for the opportunities you and I have today to be grateful!

As our son has taught me to pray, “Thank you, God, for everything.  And for life being so good!”

Amen.