Most of my gratitude is conditional. I feel and express gratitude for those things that make my life easier, safer, more comfortable, less lonely. I am thankful for my family, my friends, my warm house, my safe neighborhood, my stable income and savings portfolio, the fact that while I don’t have lots of money, I don’t have to worry about paying my grocery bill at the register. I can keep gas in my car. I am thankful for my luxuries that I usually treat them as necessities; my cell phone, health insurance, a $12 bottle of wine every few days, an evening out for dinner.

gratefulIn short, I am grateful for those things that confirm my image of myself and my beliefs about how life should be. That’s conditional gratitude, gratitude based on my judgment of it as favorable to me. I could fill notebook with my conditional gratitude. In fact, I have filled notebooks.

Conditional gratitude is easy. It’s safe. And it’s not genuine gratitude.

Let me back up. Conditional gratitude is not bad. I need to be more aware of those positive things that I too often take for granted–my family and friends, those things that make my life easier, safer, etc. It’s easy for me to forget that those are not entitlements. Those are gifts! I may have contributed to making some of them possible, but I am entitled to none of them. Conditional gratitude is a good thing, but it is only the start.

I want to explore a fuller appreciation of gratitude in the next few days. All religious traditions promote gratitude as an appropriate response to life. None of them settles for conditional gratitude. All promote something much deeper and more inclusive. That’s what I want to explore.