Connecting with God - Part I

Ari Goldman writes about the Jewish practice of saying a b'racha (blessing).
"Blessed are you God, King of the Universe, who... (brings forth bread from the ground, creates the fruit of the vine (wine) ...etc.)" There is a b'racha to be recited before virtually everything.

A.J. Jacobs is/was a secular journalist who wrote the Year of Living Biblically, in which he decides to try to follow every command in the Bible as literally as possible for a year. One small piece of this is gratitude. In a fascinating video/talk, Jacobs describes the way the consistent practice of giving thanks has transformed his life and turned him into a "reverent agnostic" as well as a more grateful person. The question has been posed: when an atheist feels just generally grateful, to whom does the atheist give thanks?

I believe that connecting to God on a daily basis is part of the whole health of a human being.
We are selfish creatures in my experience... Okay, fine. I'm a selfish creature. I need to connect to something outside myself to awaken me to the fact that I am not the center of the universe.
Notice how limp Adam's hand is in comparison to God's in Michelangelo's famous painting of the creation of Adam? In the Christian scriptures there is a sense that God is the constant animator of life. Paul, quoting a Greek philosopher, states that in God "we live and move and have our being." But in this, we are relatively passive.

My desire is to try to be a more equal partner with God in God's animation of my life.
By partner, I mean that I would not be working against (passively OR actively) God's purposes, but for them. By "more equal" I mean that maybe instead of a 1,000,000/1 ratio of God's work to my partnership, maybe we could reach a 1,000,000/2 ratio (which would double my personal investment). But achieving this takes "mindfulness;" a conscious attention to God's presence and a discerning of what role I might play in God's will for a situation.

One way of being mindful is the ongoing practice of looking for things for which I can be grateful.

Today I had each member of my class say a b'racha in introduction: "Blessed are you God, King of the Universe, who... (gives me great friends, has given me a great family, gives us coffee...)
As I look out my window right now it is my favorite time of day. The sun is low and shining which gives all the green things a glowing emerald appearance. I will go outside to say this b'racha.

What are you grateful for? Wouldn't the world be a better place if we were only a tiny bit more grateful?