All too often, gratitude seems overly transactional and justification-heavy—I have to be grateful FOR something. I prefer to appreciate.
I feel stilted and awkward if I try to express gratitude for the clump of bushes on a roadside median, but I can easily appreciate the green color and easy arrangement, the hum of my car as I step on the gas. I can appreciate the smoothness of a blanket as it slides across my skin, the blueness of the sky that stretches above me. I can appreciate the reliable hum of my keurig in the morning, the excitement of caffeine as it moves through my body.
It’s just a personal thing. I resonate more with appreciation than the “practice” of gratitude. For me, appreciation is simpler, visceral, and more intuitive, if that makes any sense.
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Dirty Sci-Fi Buddha 
It is so calming.
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I often appreciate something and feel grateful that I have been privileged to experience it.
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This is a really good essay on how gratitude was deformed by pop culture into a self-serving cult.
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Sorry–here’s the link to that: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/03/opinion/sunday/the-selfish-side-of-gratitude.html
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This is even more thoughtful than usual! It is like appreciation is the skin of gratitude. It is as if the item you are not feeling any gratitude for is just the shape of the item. The actual thanksgiving and appreciation is what makes up that item or how that item works. The feeling of caffeine as it courses through your body or the feeling of a blanket as it caresses your skin.
I adore your books, I’m glad for them, yet your words are my favorite part. They make the book or the musing or the fun thought, but without them, you’d not have any followers. Although, you probably have picked up some on your podcasts. Thus, my dissection of your musing should split hairs to being an adoration for the visual in your shares! (although, to be fair, the few casts I’ve listened to, I have enjoyed your voice!)
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Haha! Thank you, dear. Indeed, the appreciation doesn’t have to be attached labels or judgments–it can just be.
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BIG squeezy hugs!
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It makes perfect sense to me, although I don’t think I could have expressed it as well as you did. I have a similar relationship with “happy.” I much prefer the concept of contentment.
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Happiness is great! And so is the ease and mildness of satisfaction and contentment.
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Yes, I’m tracking with you. Appreciation and random acts of kindness are dancing around in my thinking. Gratitude — that thankfulness that makes you want to return the favor or gift others with an act of kindness. I tend to forget how many blessings I’ve received in the midst of some seriously dark times, so remembering and thanking God tends to have the heart-and-mind-lifting effect I needed. Happy Thanksgiving!
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Indeed! Happy Thanksgiving to you as well!
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Hmmm… Interesting… appreciation is simpler, it requires only one preposition at most, gratitude requires both a “for” and a “to”. Undirected gratitude is meaningless – or is probably just mislabelled appreciation. I do think gratitude is really important too, but not in the fluffy undirected “cultivating gratitude” way, but rather in explicit, practical ways – an actual thank you card, or better yet a box of chocolates for someone to whom you are grateful.
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Very well put! Yes–that articulates it a few steps further than I did.
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Great depiction of appreciation and gratitude 😊 I also find the subtleties in appreciation. I definitely understand it’s simplicity. However, speaking of gratitude… Id like to kindly thank you for always liking my poems, it is much appreciated, and definitely noticed, thank you ❤️
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I am grateful for your thanks. 😉
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Liked this thought – I resonate more with appreciation than the “practice” of gratitude. Thanks for the recent likes
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