How do we find the Path of Light?

Image credit: “Gratitude – This Dawn #8” by juliejordanscott is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

My father, a devout and sincere Christian, suffered from depression all his life.  Each day, upon awakening, before the gloom could take hold of him, he would recite the opening words of Psalm 118:24: “This is the day that the Lord has made.  Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Then he would get straight out of bed and get on with the day.

Gratitude

Gratitude is a very effective way of moving onto the Path of Light.  Yet it is hard to practise when we are sad, depressed, or perhaps even in the very depths of despair. Sometimes we need something practical to steer us in the right direction.

The story goes that when Gwyneth Paltrow was suffering from depression, Oprah Winfrey gave her a gratitude journal and advised her to write in it every day, five things she was grateful for.  Gwyneth found this practice very helpful.  Oprah’s suggestion of a gratitude journal where the positive things in our lives can be written down, is a good idea.  Somehow negativity comes easily.  A positive attitude to life needs a more intentional approach.

For people of faith, gratitude is practised routinely in church when we read the psalms or sing hymns which are songs of praise.  Each time we worship we clear the decks as it were by beginning with songs of praise and prayer as we thank God for God’s goodness to us.

As we wake each day, a helpful practice for setting out on the Path of Light is to give thanks to God for several good things in our lives and to hand over the day to the goodness of God.

I have met a few seniors lately who walk the Path of Light.  One person described the sense of peace and contentment that suffuses her life despite various trials and tribulations.  She is grateful for her life and its experiences.  Another emanates a sense of peace and joy.  “I’m grateful just to have reached my seventies,” she says.  “I’m grateful for all of it, good and bad.”  So, at 3 am, when I wake up with a sense of gloom, I remember these people and their practice of gratitude, and I give thanks.

However, gratitude alone is not enough to tread the Path of Light.  We also need to cultivate the practice of forgiveness and the practice of acceptance, the subject of my next blog.