Submission 413
Melissa Egbertson
BuxMont Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (Warrington, PA) 7425
What is your suggestion or idea?
Title: More emphasis on the transcendent power of GRATITUDE
Suggested text:
Gratitude: We are grateful for our lives and the gifts that we have received. We cherish our beautiful world. We seek to create a world where all can benefit from its beauty and abundance.
What is the reason for your amendment idea?
An important religious practice across many faiths and traditions is the recognition of what we can be grateful for. Focusing and naming those things brings people comfort and hope in all stages / experiences.
As we exercise our ability to feel gratitude, we gain perspective on our existence and the experiences of others. A focus on gratitude can help capture the transcendent experience that people crave in a religion. It adds depth and emotion to both our individual practice and our communal experience of religion.
I have used the words ““lives”” and ““gifts”” to encompass broadly things to be grateful for. ““Lives”” reflects the value of the experience of living. ““Gifts”” recognizes we inherit good things independently of earning them.
If other text can capture what I have said in a simple and powerful way I am happy to hear about it.
Bringing Gratitude to the forefront of our religious practices can help energize our actions in service and social justice values.
Gratitude could be a separate value or part of another value. I think it is important enough that it should be a value of its own. I think a lack of emphasis on practicing gratitude leaves newcomers to our faith with a sense of something lacking.