The Soil In Which Virtues Grow. . .

Gratitude is the soil out of which other great virtues grow.

Cicero said: "Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others."

Gratitude is a journey of accepting and appropriating the giftedness of life. Gratitude is the journey of discovery of meaning and purpose within all creation from the subatomic to the ever expanding universe of general relativity.


Gratitude is a life intentionally dedicated to the service of others. Gratitude has become my friend and mentor. I give thanks for my life as an opportunity to give serve to my family, friends and others I meet on this journey.


Pastor Rinker, a seventeenth-century German minister, wrote this prayer:

“Now thank we all our God With hearts, and hands, and voices,

Who wondrous things hath done, In whom His world rejoices;

 Who, from our mother's arms, Hath blessed us on our way

With countless gifts of love, And still is ours today

O may this bounteous God Through all our life be near us,

With ever-joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us,

And keep us in His grace, And guide us when perplexed,

And free us from all ills In this world and the next!

And praise and thanks to God the Father now be given, The Son,

 and Him who reigns with them in highest heaven -

The one, eternal God, Whom earth and heaven adore;

 For thus it was, is now, And shall be evermore.”

Gratitude is the experience of unconditional love and the hope and assurance that beyond death is life. Surely this is the greatest reason of all to be grateful.