Extraordinary, life-changing, deeply moving, it has been for me. Her theme, Eucharisteo has captured my attention. Ann explains: "Eucharisteo, it's the central theme of Christianity...Thanksgiving...We only enter into the full life if our faith gives thanks."
My own desire to practically live this out is found in an open journal on my desk. It's aptly named my "Eucharisteo Journal" and it's where I am writing in ink my own Eucharisteo...thanksgiving.
One of them today is recorded as "Sparkle Days".
Reverend Isabella Ross, a depression survivor in the book called, "Beyond Crazy--Journeys Through Mental" Illness by Julia Nunes and Scott Simmie, shares what I so closely resonate with. Listen to her words:
"I will probably always know depression, but it surprises me, each time I am in recovery, how far off the depression can seem and how hard it is to recall the symptoms. That, I imagine, is the blessing of health. When you are sick, you can't imagine what it is like to be well; when you are well, you can't imagine that you were really sick. And I appreciate so much when I am well. To me, it means being able to live in the present, not being haunted by fear all the time, not having your mind overrun with negative thoughts. It's feeling connected to other people. Being well is not this great euphoria or happiness, it's sort of waking up in the morning and knowing what to expect. When I'm well I think, 'If only I could stay like this for the rest of my life.' But in reality, that has not been my experience. Recovery is, the way I describe it, a few months of living in the light. But you always hope. You always have this hope that it might be for the rest of your life."
I find it so refreshing to read the words of another human being and feel like it's surfacing from my own skin. I'm not sure that I would refer to my days of good emotional health as "recovery". I more think of them as a reprieve. A welcome reprieve from the battle within. And at present, I'm living it. A friend of mine appropriately named these days as "sparkle days". It's as though my eyes are wide open...my soul and spirit awake to all that's around me....contentment encircling all of me.
And it makes me deeply grateful. Brimming with thanksgiving. Eucharisteo for these days of full life.
(The days when darker clouds roll in are also days of fullest life and having my mouth speak words of thanks, but this harder way of living out Eucharisteo is for another post.)
For now, my being is entrenched in this full life.
http://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dca-books-english-tree&field-keywords=One+Thousand+Gifts+by+Ann+VoskampThis truly is a must read!!! It goes well beyond simple gratitude, but will take you to a depth of eucharisteo that will transform your life if you truly choose to live it out.
