The Beauty and Importance of Gratitude: “My Heart Overflows”

Our world seems a little short on gratitude. We have expectations and demands, and we have entitlements. But we have so much to be thankful for. Perhaps that’s the problem – so many blessings and forgetting what the source is. 

My Heart Overflows: A Treasury of Readings, Poems, and Prayers on Gratitude is a relatively small but beautiful book that reminds us to be grateful. Assembled by the editors of Paraclete Press, the work is 144 pages of artwork and text that each speaks to gratitude, why we feel it and show it, and how we can be thankful for it.

 

You can pray with Francis of Assisi, observe Walden Pond with Ralph Waldo Emerson, celebrate beauty with Gerard Manley Hopkins, consider what you mother has done for you with Maya Angelou, and be thankful for the rain with Luci Shaw. Helen Keller is here, as is John Greenleaf Whittier. 

 

You can feel the evening wind with William Cullen Bryant, read what G.K. Chesterton said about St. Francis, see why you should enjoy life (Charlotte Bronte did), and discover what George Washington was grateful for about his new nation. Emily Dickinson believed there was nothing without gratitude (and she wrote a poem about it). And you can pray and be thankful with Jane Austen and the church father Clement of Alexandria and discover what Abraham Lincoln was so thankful he declared a national day of Thanksgiving (as did James Madison). 

 

The paintings included in the artwork includes those by Childe Hassam, Winslow Homer, Claude Monet, Albert Bierstadt, Jan Steen, Vincent Van Gogh, Henri Matisse, Gustav Klimt, Giotto, and John Constable, among many others. The book is profusely illustrated, each painting chosen to illustrate the themes of thankfulness and gratitude.

 

I love beautiful books, and My Heart Overflows is a beautiful book. In fact, you could say I’m grateful for the time, care, and attention the editors at Paraclete used to create this volume.

 

Painting: The Thankful Poor, oil on canvas (1896) by Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937), one of the illustrations used in the book. 

Some Monday Readings

 

Chaos in Aurora – Christina Buttons and Christopher Rufo at City Journal. 

 

The Imminent Russia-US War – Christopher Caldwell at Compact Magazine.

 

Kristallnacht – The Night of Broken Glass – poem by Brian Yapko at Society of Classical Poets.

 

Writing for an Audience of One – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.

 

Things Worth Remembering: The Imperfection of America – Douglas Murray at The Free Press.

Some Tuesday Readings

Poetry at Work Day! – Tuesday, January 9, 2024 – Tweetspeak Poetry. 

Things Worth Remembering: A Grave You Have in the Clouds – Douglas Murray at The Free Press. 

 

Against All Earthly Fire – poem by Leland James at Society of Classical Poets. 

 

Writing a Poem: Where to Begin – Jody Lee Colins at Poetry & Made Things. 

 

A Plea for the Second Verse of “O Come All Ye Faithful” – Stephen Presley at Institute for Faith, Work, & Economics.

 

Paying Attention – poem by Andrew Peterson at Rabbit Room Poetry. 

Some Thursday Readings

Civil War Art: Robert Knox Sneden – Doug Crenshaw at Emerging Civil War. 

200 Years in Rhondda Grove – Naman Choudhary at Spitalfields Life. 

 

A mystery in Milwaukee – Anthony Alofsin at The New Criterion on the Frederick C. Bogk House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. 

 

Stories About Waking Up from Woke – Oliver Wiseman at The Free Press.

Photograph by Thought Catalog via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Wednesday Readings

The Grand Narrative – poem by A.F. Moritz at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin).  

Storms & Light at Winchester National Cemetery – Sarah Kay Bierle at Emerging Civil War.

 

Recovering the Sacred in Music – Robert Reilly at The Imaginative Conservative.

Painting: Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, oil on canvas (ca, 1870) by Honore Daumier (18081979), Courtaulds Museum, London.