11/25/2025
"In the contemplative traditions—Franciscan, Eastern, the mystics who learned to pray in the dark—this kind of gratitude isn’t about answers. It’s about presence.
It’s standing before the Holy with empty hands, with your grief and your joy both visible, and saying: This is what I have. This is where I am. Not because God needs the report, but because you need to stop pretending you’re holding it all together.
The practice isn’t complicated. It’s simply this: pause. Let yourself feel what you actually feel—the sorrow, the beauty, the fear, the strange flicker of joy that appears even in hard seasons.
And then, without fixing or explaining any of it, offer it. Not to an idea of God, but to the Mystery that holds you whether you understand it or not." ~Donnie Yance
By Donnie Yance “You may not control life’s circumstances, but getting to be the author of your life means getting to control what you do with them.” Atul Gawande (2014). “Being Mortal: Illne…