Have you met Teresa Deak of Given to Gratitude? I love her combination of being very real about the ups and downs of life, whilst still being dedicated to a practice of gratitude. Today Teresa steps Behind the Mic to share her eloquent and insightful thoughts on photography as gratitude practice. Teresa, step right up…
Gratitude as Spiritual Practice
by Teresa Deak
As I write this I hear birdsong from my backyard even though the windows are all closed. I huddle inside keeping warm with sweaters and slippers and feel grateful.
I’m grateful that I don’t have to be outside in the rain. Grateful I have a warm dry home and an abundance of sweaters and slippers.
And I’m grateful for the rain. Some of the things I love best were longing for it: flowers, trees, lakes, rivers, even us.
Still, I hope for and wish for a reprieve from the wet. Just a few minutes would do. Minutes when I could take my camera outside and capture the vibrant colour the rain has awakened in the autumn leaves. But the clouds are thick, the light dim and that reprieve will not come today.
So I return to gratitude.
This is a common theme for me, finding gratitude even in the midst of longing. And for me it is the fuel for my spiritual engine.
Easy to say, but what do I mean Gratitude, and how do I connect with her?
I take photos. Like some people go to church or pray, I take photos.
The first time I was led by her to something amazing I had a broken shoulder. While I had one arm immobile and had little I could do in the hot summer but sit and appreciate my surroundings, I one day became lost in the sea of purple that is a pansy. When I was startled from my trance by the shock of orange at its center I realized that I had been somewhere.
I felt I’d travelled to a place within and beyond, something grander than our imagining and deep at the center of everything. Words are such a clumsy means to express it. They are never quite enough, never quite right.
Shortly after that day I acquired my first digital camera. Suddenly the expression of this feeling became a lot easier. Without the weight of words to muddy the experience, I could capture something with my lens and share it with others who could feel it too. This is what I do on Photos You Feel. There are words there, too, my version of poetry. But it’s the photos, really, that carry the message.
It’s taken years of sharing, years of diving into this sensation that is so hard to name, years of blogging and connecting and losing myself in this presence, in the Infinite, over and over again for me to revisit the idea that she needs a name.
Because there is so much more to this than merely taking photos of pretty things.
There is this awareness, this seeing something beautiful in sometimes the most mundane of moments.
There is a feeling of community, of connection with something greater than me and my lens, with people who share this same journey.
There is a respect and desire for kindness to these glimpses of something eternal and mysterious.
And there is thanks. There is always thanks. I am so thankful to see what not everyone sees. I am so thankful to have this camera that can capture it, that sometimes captures something I didn’t even see in the taking. I am so thankful that I can sort through these images, melt into them again, that I can share them across the electronic universe. I am so full of thanks that others see the divine in them also.
And all of these feelings, all of these elements – the awareness and kindness, the community and the thankfulness – they are all parts of one thing that is so hard to name. But with much meditation, much thought about how they all work together, I’ve decided that this shall be called Gratitude.
And so it is. When I need to refuel, when I need to remind myself that alone is a myth, the universe is right here ready for me to tap into. When I need to breathe life into my soul again, I can dive into any part of that process. The photo taking, the sorting or the sharing, and I can fill up on Gratitude right there.
You might be getting the impression that my spiritual practice is taking and sharing photos. It’s part of it, but it’s not the core of it.
The photos are key for me, but what is key for you is whatever lets you sink down into Gratitude.
This is my practice of Gratitude. Letting myself become fully drenched in the moment, alive with thanks and awareness and community and kindness. The giving in to that feeling. The release of my white knuckle grip on the tether to everyday life and the slipping deep into her water. The practice is to become Given to Gratitude.
So for me the photos and their sharing is the ritual, the key that will almost always open my heart, but the practice is Gratitude.
Knowing this, I can practice Gratitude anytime, even without my camera, even without the gorgeous sunshine. Sinking into Gratitude can be thankfulness for any bounty, can be doing a kindness for someone, can be stopping mid-sentence to enjoy the two flickers on the neighbour’s house (which are actually there, right now, as I write this), or connecting with my soul-family.
And each of those acts, each of those moments in Gratitude, fills me. Like a well fuelled vehicle, I have what it takes to continue.
What ritual will bring you to Gratitude? What practices can you begin that will let you feel free to be drenched in her waters?
Gratitude, like Beauty, is in all things. And in small things. Can you see she is in you?
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What about you Magpie? How do you interact with Gratitude?
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Thanks.Giving. Here at Magpie Girl, we say “thank-you†to our generous guest posters by making donation in their honor. Teresa has chosen to direct her donation to The Girl Effect a non-profit organization dedicated to education, health care, and justice for girls worldwide. If this article was helpful to you, please click here to make a donation. (Thanks, you.)
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With a spirit that lights up the room, and a generous heart, Teresa Deak brings Gratitude into her every action. Using a camera to explore the small things we often miss, her photographs evoke a sense of the mystery in all things. With gratitude as her guide, she shares the raw honesty of her experience with us, and encourages a place for gratitude in our own lives. Photos shared at Photos You Feel give a glimpse into that small beauty. Join Teresa at Given To Gratitude for a journey to welcome gratitude into your everyday with joy and abundance.