The law of "thanksgiving" and gratitude is the divine law of multiplication. It is the law of bringing-forth, of creation, of increase. As the heavenly song of the universe pours into our beings in its complete fullness, we come to realize the purpose and the power of such infinite harmony. It is a song of love and devotion, of praise and exaltation, of gratitude and thanks that can clothe one in complete glory. It is the celestial symphony of the universe. It is the "new song" that is not learned in words, but which is felt and released from the very center of the soul. It is divine, perfected love, developed from within by gratitude.
~ from SONS (AND DAUGHTERS) OF GOD by Christine Mercie
...in our culture, it has been aptly observed, "we are never as kind as we want to be, but nothing outrages us more than people being unkind to us." In his stirring Syracuse commencement address, George Saunders confessed with unsentimental ruefulness: "What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness." I doubt any decent person, upon candid reflection, would rank any other species of regret higher. To be human is to leap toward our highest moral potentialities, only to trip over the foibled actualities of our reflexive patterns. To be a good human is to keep leaping anyway.
~ Maria Popova in the brainpickings.org newsletter, "Leo Tolstoy on Kindness and the Measure of Love"
