Thankfulness is an attitude of heart from which we are aware of our blessings. Thankfulness flows from the knowledge of how loved, valued and precious we are to the creator, our family and our friends and how enjoyable life can be with the environment, water, oceans, plants, flowers, the sun, the moon, lovely landscapes etc around us. Our daily activities such as walking, breathing, talking, seeing, working, playing will take on a new meaning when our heart is thankful.
Expressing thankfulness and gratitude goes beyond national boundaries and geographic regions. Different nations and people have different ways and practices of expressing thankfulness, at different times of the years and performing different rituals. Some have a fixed date each year for expressing thankfulness, while others have various dates for different reasons of thankfulness.
The picture at the top was taken at the DaZhao temple of Inner Mongolia, China where people burnt joss sticks to express their thankfulness.
After praying, joss sticks are usually placed into a utensil; some of which are made of brass, until the joss sticks are fully burnt and the prayers heard.
Some images of this utensil, usually found in Chinese temples, are depicted here.
As someone who do not burn joss sticks to express thanks, I thought it would be more important that we always have thankfulness in our hearts; that we express our thankfulness in words and deeds to those whom we love and care and also to those who care and love us, whenever the opportunity arises.
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