Thank you
I give thanks today for my clients. Of course I’m thankful for all the good things you bring into my office, into my life: your courage, your creativity, your good humor. I love all of that! But I also give thanks for the challenges you bring to me, even the frustrations. One client once apologized for being “so hard, so difficult.” As if it was wrong for him to bring his problems to his counselor! No, I am thankful for the problems, the anger, the tears, the worries, the regrets. So often these hard things take us closer to the heart of things: our truest selves, our deepest longings, and a life lived more beautifully, more fully. So, thank you. Thank you for choosing to work with me.
One of my favorite writers, Susan Palo Cherwien, wrote about thanksgiving. Here is her take on gratitude, and I offer you this poem with all good wishes for a happy Thanksgiving.
God is praised in gratitude.
This is Meister Eckhart’s one most excellent
and needful prayer:
Thank you.
It feeds the well of our joy.
Gratitude
Thanksgiving
In all things I have learned to give thanks.
Corrie ten Boom learned to thank God for fleas;
St. Paul, for the thorn in his flesh.
In all things
the best and most needful prayer:
Thank you.
—from Crossings, by Susan Palo Cherwien
