Gratitude: it isn’t always easy to find, but when you do, you wonder why you didn’t find it sooner. Being thankful may be something we hear others telling us to embrace: our parents, friends, or mentors, and especially, for those who have them, therapists. Maybe it’s an ethos you embrace in your daily routine, or an ethic you’ve adopted to approach difficulties with a humbling perspective and persistent optimism. Whatever the case may be, it is beneficial to think of gratitude as a state of mind that acknowledges where you’re going and where you’ve been, or what you have and who gave it to you. It is a tool encouraging us to stop for a moment and think about all the good things we’ve received from God and others, whether it be an old but favorite car with a good radio or a new pair of headphones, or simply lungs that breathe and ears that hear.
In this collection of songs, rays of happiness illuminate through joyful instrumentation and crisp vocal harmonies. In Lalah Hathaway’s “Cherish the Day” and Earth, Wind & Fire’s “Gratitude,” refreshing artistic experimentation invokes the feeling of a communal meal or the African oral tradition of sharing of stories across generations. Sing along with Ledisi, Lecrae, India.Arie, Hezekiah Walker, Marvin Sapp and more in a playlist emphasizing gratitude for what we have and are yet to receive.
