Gratitude, the Means By Which We Join the Ever-Broadening Flow of Abundance and Blessing

Fractal art by the author, Deeann D. Mathews

First of all, thank you to @phoenixwren for setting this up, and to @justclickindiva for the invite!

Already, I am showing the bent of my mind ... it does not work in singular form ... one thing flows to another, so even though I know the questions are in the singular --

1. Someone you are grateful for IRL/offline (this can be an animal as well as a human!)
   

2. Someone you are grateful for here on Hive
   

3. An object you are grateful for that makes your life better/easier
   

-- I hope you will have a bit of patience for the plurality of my thoughts here, because No. 1 is NUMBER ONE, and that is where the flow begins ...

1. God Himself, because I learned the Doxology very young
   1.5. My parents and grandmother, who taught me the true depth of gratitude at an equally young age

Because I am a musician, what I have learned through music I have especially learned, and the Doxology was a huge part of my church-going life growing up in an older Baptist church. The first line of the Doxology is "Praise God from Whom all blessings flow." It was embedded in my mind and was there when I was of an age to become a Christian myself ... and I have never known it fail. Since Covid-19 in particular, I have seen God move to provide for me through this very platform in ways that few people would believe -- but it is one of those things that if you know, you know.

This is where my parents and grandmother, all able Bible teachers, come in. The proper response to being blessed is to say THANK YOU, and gratitude opens up the stream of further blessing from God and from all that He has made, for that is how the whole thing is set up! I could not have articulated that as a child, but I saw it in Scripture and in real life as the adults in my world were able to form rich, mutually beneficial relationships with people starved of recognition and appreciation elsewhere in the world. There is a reason gratitude is COMMANDED in Scripture. There is also a reason it is rarely taught as a command. I am grateful to live in the United States, but as a well-instructed, well-read African American, I have no illusion about how greedy and entitled the culture is here. My ancestors were in the hands of people who helped themselves to their ENTIRE LIVES, with ZERO GRATITUDE -- and now, that culture is pulling in people of all races wanting to have everything handed to them and thinking they are entitled. Even the majority of churches have ALWAYS BEEN THIS WAY, here.

However, my grandmother and parents protected me from that culture ... a lifetime of practicing gratitude toward God and others and living in the flow of that short-circuits the scarcity mindset that is really behind the greedy behavior ... in reality, greedy people are empty, with a hole in their soul they cannot fill, so they try to put everything they can get their hands on in it ... but the grateful person acknowledges grace and abundance and thus perceives SUFFICIENCY. For the greedy, nothing is ever enough. For the grateful, we already have everything and are sitting in the flow of happy people, and are happy!

So, God, parents, and grandmother -- they are the corporate singular "someone" who started me out understanding the primacy and command of gratitude, and gave me the foundation on which I have built everything else!

Here on Hive, I have a lot of friends and supporters, and I am grateful to all of them

I cannot list them all, but there are a few names that come to mind immediately, and if you want to enter The Grateful Contest, I invite y'all!

@justclickindiva, who made me aware of this contest, my friend and fellow fractal artist with whom I have collaborated many times ... my fellow crypto scout who keeps me up on Hive developments like EDS ... and all with a mother's love ... she treats me like I am another daughter, and I really appreciate that! THANK YOU!

@myjob, who makes time every day, despite being a third-generation commercial fisherman keeping food in the mouths of people in Florida, to read and comment on my work. That's a blessing. Although Hive is small, attention is still at a premium -- THANK YOU!

@carlgnash, who I have not seen around here for a bit, but who gave me my first delegation because I was blowing my whole RC wad thanking the people who commented on my early posts -- and that let me start the daily habits I have settled into now. THANK YOU!

@mipiano, who knows all about me, all my bass-voiced friends in music, and the "Habe Dank" lifestyle -- HABE DANK!

@castleberry, who not only reads my science fiction here but always finds the right GIF to drop to crack me up:

@thisismylife, past and future Captain Sunshine, with whom I have been through more than I will probably ever recall publicly UNLESS certain people get out of pocket ... but all of which was worth it, because she is a FRIEND, worth the find -- THANK YOU!

@mariannewest, who is enjoying the days of her life after YEARS of keeping Hive's Freewriters together and on the chain ... and with her one must mention @felt.buzz, @wakeupkitty, and the late @wonderwop, our own Uncle Bruni ... THANK YOU ALL!

Of all tools at my disposal, Hive itself is the one for which I am most grateful

Yes, I know Hive is a community, but also a technology, and a way into crypto ... a way, to bring this all full circle, for which I literally prayed almost five years ago. I asked for a way into crypto that I could understand ... the math and computer science around Bitcoin had clicked enough for me to know crypto was something I needed to get involved in, but I am a creative at heart and needed that bridge. Hive's predecessor was the bridge ... but Hive itself gave me the room to develop as a full-fledged major creative supported by community. Beethoven, the favorite composer of my youth, foresaw that someday there would be an Art Exchange ... his dream is my reality! For that, I am deeply grateful!