Prayer Shawl Ministry Practices an Attitude of Gratitude

On March 19, near the time we began sheltering-in-place, Kathy Wilkinson started sending us little emails each day titled “Attitude of Gratitude.” She invited us to join her in sharing five or more things we are grateful for on that particular day.
Here’s a random sampling of our gratitude:

  • Dropping food donations at Rebecca Haynes’ home for the 4Saints Food Pantry
  • Our pets
  • Our husbands, children, and grandchildren
  • Beautiful things growing in our gardens
  • Email
  • Ice Cream!
  • Rainbows
  • Yarn
  • People able to find humor in hard situations
  • Clean sheets
  • Seeing the Easter Bunny in the neighborhood
  • Being the Easter Bunny for little ones
  • Scrap-booking
  • Teaching piano lessons on Zoom and Facebook
  • Finding toilet paper, flour and yeast (and sharing Paula Jefferson’s grandmother’s bread recipe)
  • A diagnosis and healing for Georgia Heckel
  • Take-out meals
  • Home-cooked meals
  • Our friendships and our St. Martin’s community
  • Zoom meetings at our group’s regular gathering time, 1 pm on Thursday. This is the exact time of St. Martin’s assigned prayer vigil hour for the folks at THR-HEB in Bedford, so we pray then for the staff, patients and families of people affected by CoVID-19.

A few days ago at the end of the day, I found myself feeling distinctly UNgrateful, but I made myself create a list and send it on to the group. And it really, really helped. It made me feel a lot better, actually. This little spiritual practice is part of the frame of my day. I’m so grateful for being in community with this group of my St. Martin’s friends.
Mary Beth Butler