Thank You: The Antidote to Loneliness

I lay in my bed and waited for sleep.

Instead, the ancestors brought light.

This is what they showed me:

There is an antidote to loneliness, disconnection, disaffection and disappointment. It comes from within. And we invoke its healing power with only two words.

Thank you.

If we say thank you, we cannot be lonely, for we are automatically in relationship -- fruitful relationship. We recognize that we have received and benefited.

We grant ourselves this relationship. Through it, we have power to transcend divisions, walls, impossibilities and doubts. Through it, we can mend things broken.

Say thank you -- say it about anything, big or small. Say it to your neighbor, your friend, your mother, yourself, God. Say it about the rain, the stars, a daffodil, laughter, a fresh cup of coffee, the soft skin of someone you love.

Gratefulness anoints all with grace and opens us to the grace in all.

We say thank you and we dispel confusion. We say thank you and achieve immediate connection.

In this life, we can make a jail cell from fear, or we can say thank you and make a new cell in the great whole of creation.

Think of this story:

We are cups. Love is the liquid that fills the cups. Is your cup empty? Did you know you hold the tap? The tap is called gratefulness. Say thank you and let love flow.

The limited married to the limitless knows no boundary, no isolation, no flaw.

Joseph Campbell says deliverance comes from within.

So does a sense of shared experience and belonging.

Thank you for reading this. Blessings to everyone.

P.S. Check out Brother David Steindl-Rast on TED.