Gratitude

Passages

Every passage tagged with this emotion in the Vela corpus. Search the body text, narrow by source or register, click through to a book’s profile to see how the passage sits with the rest of the work.

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• From A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (BDB) (1907)

  —abs.’n Gn 24%5-+ 88%.; 120 Gn 397 + 12 t.5 estr.10N 1S 204+ 8t.; sf.7IDD ץ‎ 598+ r20t. sfs.; pl. DION Gn32"; estr. ‘On Is55°+ 5% (Baer 79 Ges '® ההא‎ “On Ne13%+10t. | sfs.;(notin HorP). I. of man: 1. kindness of men towards men, in doing favours and bene- fits 15 20° 25 16" 7 141* Prig”™ 20°; ח" יהוה‎ 1S 20"the kindness of ’*(such as he shews, 11108 | MV; that sworn to by oath to Yahweh Mich Dathe; shewn out of reverence to Yahweh Th Ke), cf. אלהים‎ ’n 2S 9%; ‘ANIA Pr 31% instruction in kindness, kindly instruction” ‘Tey TD ney do or shew kindness (in dealing) with me Gn 20% 40%(E), ז‎ ₪ 20% 2 8 10? (BY in || ד‎ Ch 192); 6. OY Gn21*(E), 24°* Jos” 21535 Jy p24 (J), 85 1S nr 282° 38 9, *לסז‎ =1.Ch 0% 1 Ch19” 3 hee by 1S 20°; c. 21K 27; לפני‎ ‘n Nv obtain 0 before Est2°"; בת היטיב ח'‎ —. kindness (espe- | cially as exténded to the lowly, needy and miserable), mercy Pr 20% Jb 6"; DM איש‎ mer= ceful man Pr דנז‎ (opp. *NI8) ; 1°32 merciful kings 1 K 20"; עשה ח"‎ y 109"; in this sense usu. with other attributes (vy. also infr. II. 2);_ || אמת‎ Ho 4! Is16°; ח' ואמת‎ Pr 3* 14” 16° 20% nox ‘n עשה‎ Gn 24* 47% 708 2*)[ ; RV + these under 1); || צרקה‎ Horo”; צדקה וח"‎ Pr- 217; || משפט‎ Mi6’; ח' ומשפט‎ Ho 127; || חונן‎ ץ‎ ae חי "של‎ Ze 7° Dn 1*°.—(On Ho oe vy. 3infr.) 3. (rarely) sae of Isr. to, love to God, piety: VY] ח'‎ Je 2? piety of thy youth (\|love of thine espousals to Yahweh); | poss. also חִסְְּכֶם כָּענןבקר‎ Ho 6* your piety | is like a morning cloud (fleeting), and 707) כִּי‎ nt ולא‎ ‘YD 116 6* for piety I delight in and ‘it tn peace-offering 6 אלהים‎ nyt, cf. 1 S15"); [ —so Wii Now Hi (v*) Che; Ke Hi (v‘) al. ₪02 > 2 (orl); חֶסָד--;‎ WIS men - = 57 / (צדּיק‎ ; | pl. pious acts 2 Ch 32” 35% Ne 3% lovely appearance : הַשָרָה‎ a ae tts love- \ liness as the flower of the field (soThes HiDeChe | Dial.; but 6668 60 1 Pet 1* & gloria B favour | an casa reading הוד‎ Lo or 1733 Ew, see חסר ar; Du 7). II. of God: kindness, lovingkindness in condescending to the needs of his creatures.

• From A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (BDB) (1907)

  J) n.pr.m., vy. .דל‎ try n.pr.m. one who (with TADS) pro- in the camp of Isr. Nu 11% (JE), ₪‏ ו Maéaéd.‏ vb. throw, cast (Ar. (S35 65‏ ד eruit, emisit, 11. Iv. emisit (all now in special senses); Eth. O28: throw, cast on or in (very oft.; cf. D.AL:); whence Hiph. give thanks, con- Jess (orig. acknowledge’) is commonly derived, perhaps from gestures accompanying the act, v. Thes Lag”, yet connexion uncertain; Aram. Pa.*), Aph. אודי‎ confess, 7 vroka? id.; but Eth. AN TPL: accuse, perh. also fr. gesture; Palm. מודא‎ render thanks, oft. in votive inscrr., see Vog on No. 79; עבד ומודא‎ Vog** = plotas avebnke; DY מודן בל‎ Vog** 1; ידתא‎ 8 Vog***)—Qal Ime. by ידו‎ ae (arrows) at Je 50" (rd. prob., with some Codd. 7%). 1. Impf.°2 וידר‎ La 3° and they cast (stones) on me ; Inf. ידות‎ Ze 2* to cast down (the horns of the nations). Hiph. (connex. with ידה‎ throw, obscure, yet vy. supr.) Pf הודו‎ 1 K 8% + 3 t.; הודינו‎ y 757; Impf. 077" Ne 11™ (on form y. )105%**7( - 771 ש‎ 6% rs. sf. BTS 287 (Ges**); TIS 42°? 435; pl. ידו‎ 993+ 6t.; sf. BTA 458 (Ges* 2 7 49", ete. 8 2 Taine Imw. הודו‎ Ts 12*+ 16t.; הרג‎ W107); Inf. הודות‎ 1 Ch 253411 t.; niin Ezr 3"; הדות‎ 1 Ch 16' + 4 t. (see Baer 4 92°); Pt.TW Pr 28%; pl. מודים‎ 1 Ch 29%;—1. give thanks, laud, praise; a. c. ace. (1)of men, Judah Gn 49° (poetic play on ame); Job (ironical) Jb 40%; ae king + 455; the rich 49”; (2) of *, Gn 29° (J expl. name ;(יהודה‎ 6 (mostly yy and Ch) of ritual worship (vy. Lag וי‎ obj. 4) ny Ts 25} v 44° ae 99° 138° =evdyxa- 392 תורה

• From A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (BDB) (1907)

  237) Is 27" Jb 33%; W3N. y 67? 123? Mal 1°; תֶּחן‎ y 59°; sf. 039A Dt 7°; אָחן‎ Ex 33"; Ime. sf. 220 דָ1 +45 ש‎ > Py; 2327 ץ‎ 9% (Baer pts. *2290); 23 Is 337 ץ‎ 123% WBN Ju 21%; חָָנִי‎ Jb ro"; Inf. abs. i} Is30"; estr. ץ חנות‎ 77"; A y 1024; 03327 Is 30%; 2%. 27 Pr 14%; ש חונן‎ 37% + 5 +. by Pr.—favour, shew favour; 1. of man: a. גו[‎ 219 favour us with them (2 acc.; 1.6. by giving them to us), b. in dealing with the poor, needy, and orphans, abs. ער‎ oy rie te nee er oe ag” 25"; 1c. - שי‎ 109" 6. by considering and sparing, c. ace. Dt 7? 28° La 4% 0 2. of God, a. in the bestowal of favours, with acc. Gn 33" (E), 43% (J), Nu 6*(P), 2S 12”; double ace. Gn 33° (E), 9229 FA be gracious unto me (in giving) thy law ~ 119%. b. usually in the bestowal of redemption from enemies, evils, and sins; abs. ץ‎ 77°, elsewhere 0. acc. Ex 2 (JE), Am au 2 K 13° Is 27: ה‎ 33° Mal 1? V4 63 9" 250 262 247 30" aa here Bir 567 Ban 59° 677 8616 סד‎ 0 72975 Jb 33%.— Jb 197 v. 11. jon. Niph. Pf. 2 fs. MIN? Je 22% be pitied (ארר/ גְאַר.61)‎ but G SFB express groan (i.e. HHIN2), which is favoured by context, and adopted by Hi Ew Gf Gie al. Pi. Impf. 3 ms. make gracious, favourable sbip OD Pr 26%. Po'el Jmpf. 3 ms. direct javour to (Ges’**) 3027 PDY NN) 102"; Pt. עניים‎ 72ND) זע‎ ,%. _Hoph. Impf. }™ be shewn favour, consideration 18 26" Pr21*. Hithp. Pf. 2 ms. NWN 1 א‎ "+5 > 75; Lmpf: pon) 2K 13; וַתִּתְִנָּן‎ Est 8°; j20N8 y 30°+ ete. +6t. Impf.; Inf. H20009 Est 48; 3230073 Gn 427—seek or implore favour: 1. of man, with אֶל‎ Gn 427 (E) 2 K 1%; with > Jb x9" Est 498°. 2. of God, with “8 Dt 37 1K 8% = 2 00 67, Jb8* y 30° 142°; with 5 Ho 12° Jbo®; with לפני‎ 1 K 8° 9° 2 Ch 6%

• From A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (BDB) (1907)

  Thanks are due to many scholars who have shown an interest in the work, and have contributed to its value by their suggestions. Prominent among these are Professor Hermann L. Strack, D.D., of Berlin; Professor George F. Moore, D.D., of Harvard University; and, for the Biblical Aramaic, Stanley A. Cook, Esq., of Cambridge, who has kindly read the proofs of the Aramaic Appendix, and made various additions and improvements. Dr. Eberhard Nestle, of Maulbronn, Professors Theodor Noldeke, of Strassburg, Henry Preserved Smith, D.D., of Amherst, Mass., Thomas Kelly Cheyne, D.D., of Oxford, Richard J. H. Gottheil, Ph.D., of Columbia University, New York, A. F. Kirkpatrick, D.D., and William Emery Parnes, D.D., of Cambridge, T. W. Davies, of the University Coilege of North Wales, and Max Margolis, of the University of California, as well as Mr. H. W. Sheppard, of Bromley, Kent, and others, have laid the Editors under obligation by sending important comments, or lists of corrections. Any further communications which may advance the cause of Hebrew scholarship, and promote a more thorough comprehension of the Old Testament Scriptures by supplying material for a possible future edition of the Lexicon, will be cordially weleomed. It is impossible to bring this Preface to a close without especial reference to the relations between the Editors and their Publishers, in America and in England. The new Hebrew Lexicon owes its origin to Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin and Company, of Boston, Mass., holders of the copyright of * Robinson’s Gesenius, and long its publishers. The present editors were authorized by them to undertake the work as a revision of that book. The late Mr. Henry O. Houghton, senior member of the firm, gave the project his especial attention, devoting much time to personal conference with the American editors, and making a visit to Oxford for a discussion of the matter with Professor Driver, and with the Delegates of the Clarendon Press, whose co-operation he secured. It is a matter of deep regret that his life was not spared to see the completion of an enterprise in which he took so sympathetic an interest. We desire to record our appreciation of that interest, and of the considerate patience with which he—and the other members of this publishing-house both before and since his death—have met the delays in finishing the work. We are under similar obligations to the Delegates of the, Clarendon Press. Since assuming a share in this enterprise they have shown unfailing regard for it as a serious contribution to Hebrew learning. The Editors have many courtesies to acknowledge from successive Seeretaries of the Clarendon Press, the late Master of Pembroke, Professor Bartholomew Price, D.D., P. Lyttleton Gell, Esq., and C. Cannan, Esq. We desire to express our thanks to the printers, to whose painstaking care in the composition—made complicated and difficult by the great variety of type, including half a dozen founts of foreign characters—in the correcting and in the press-work, the excellent appearance of the page is due; to Horace Hart, M.A.,

• From Tipping the Velvet (1998)

  She had had a key cut for me, so that when I came home late I should not wake them ... It was like rooming with angels. I could keep the hours I liked, wear the costumes I chose, and Mrs Milne said nothing. I could come home in a jacket crusted, at the collar, with a man’s rash spendings - and she would only pluck it from my nervous hands, and wash it at the tap: ‘I never saw a girl so careless with her soup!’ I could wake wretched, plagued with memories, and she would pile my breakfast plate the higher, asking nothing. She was as simple, in her way, as her own simple daughter; she was good to me for Gracie’s sake, because I liked her, and was kind to her. I was patient, for example, over the issue of Grace’s interest in the colourful. You could not have spent three minutes in that house without noticing it; but after three days there I began to sense a kind of system to her mania which, if I had had routines of my own, like an ordinary girl, might have proved rather maddening. When, on my first Wednesday there, I went down to breakfast in a yellow waistcoat, Mrs Milne flinched: ‘Gracie don’t quite like to see yellow in the house,’ she said, ‘on a Wednesday.’ Three days later, however, we had a custard for tea: food on a Saturday, it seemed, must be yellow, or nothing ... Mrs Milne had grown so used to the fads, she had almost ceased to notice them; and in time, as I have said, I grew used to them, too - calling, ‘What colour today, Grace?’ as I dressed in the mornings. ‘May I wear my blue serge suit, or must it be the Oxfords?’ ‘Shall we have gooseberries for supper, or a Battenburg cake?’ I didn’t mind, it came to seem a kind of game; and Gracie’s way was quite as valid a philosophy, I thought, as many others. And her basic passion, for the vivid and the bright, I understood very well. For there were so many lovely colours in the city; and in a sense she tutored me to look at them anew. As I strolled about I would keep a watch for pictures and dresses that I knew that she would like, then bring them home for her. She had a number of huge albums, into which she pasted cuttings and scraps: I would find her magazines and little books, to worry at with her scissors; I would buy her flowers from the flower-girls’ stalls: violets, carnations, lavender statice and blue forget-me-nots.

• From Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (1995)

  Whatever the label that attaches to this book—autobiography, memoir, family history, or something else—what I’ve tried to do is write an honest account of a particular province of my life. When I’ve strayed, I’ve been able to look to my agent, Jane Dystel, for her faith and tenacity; to my editor, Henry Ferris, for his gentle but firm correctives; to Ruth Fecych and the staff at Times Books, for their enthusiasm and attention in shepherding the manuscript through its various stages; to my friends, especially Robert Fisher, for their generous readings; and to my wonderful wife, Michelle, for her wit, grace, candor, and unerring ability to encourage my best impulses. It is to my family, though—my mother, my grandparents, my siblings, stretched across oceans and continents—that I owe the deepest gratitude and to whom I dedicate this book. Without their constant love and support, without their willingness to let me sing their song and their toleration of the occasional wrong note, I could never have hoped to finish. If nothing else, I hope that the love and respect I feel for them shines through on every page. [image file=image_rsrc2W3.jpg] CHAPTER ONE [image file=image_rsrc2W2.jpg] A FEW MONTHS AFTER MY twenty-first birthday, a stranger called to give me the news. I was living in New York at the time, on Ninety-fourth between Second and First, part of that unnamed, shifting border between East Harlem and the rest of Manhattan. It was an uninviting block, treeless and barren, lined with soot-colored walk-ups that cast heavy shadows for most of the day. The apartment was small, with slanting floors and irregular heat and a buzzer downstairs that didn’t work, so that visitors had to call ahead from a pay phone at the corner gas station, where a black Doberman the size of a wolf paced through the night in vigilant patrol, its jaws clamped around an empty beer bottle. None of this concerned me much, for I didn’t get many visitors. I was impatient in those days, busy with work and unrealized plans, and prone to see other people as unnecessary distractions. It wasn’t that I didn’t appreciate company exactly. I enjoyed exchanging Spanish pleasantries with my mostly Puerto Rican neighbors, and on my way back from classes I’d usually stop to talk to the boys who hung out on the stoop all summer long about the Knicks or the gunshots they’d heard the night before. When the weather was good, my roommate and I might sit out on the fire escape to smoke cigarettes and study the dusk washing blue over the city, or watch white people from the better neighborhoods nearby walk their dogs down our block to let the animals shit on our curbs—“Scoop the poop, you bastards!” my roommate would shout with impressive rage, and we’d laugh at the faces of both master and beast, grim and unapologetic as they hunkered down to do the deed.

• From Get Out of Your Head: Stopping the Cycle of Anxious Thoughts (2020)

  And then, you let others take the initiative with you. I can’t help but notice that every time I post on Instagram about friendship and the value of doing life in community, I get responses such as these: “No one wants to be my friend.” “No one ever reaches out.” “I do my part, but no one ever reciprocates.” “Nobody cares about me.” Listen—giving thoughts such as these space in your mind and heart is giving the enemy a free pass. These things just are not true! The irony here is that many of the people you think don’t care about you are feeling the very same way. They are worried that if they put themselves out there, they will be rejected. They are frustrated that nobody seems to be reciprocating the care they extend. They are wondering if anyone wants to be friends with them. Which is why I’m begging you: Go be the botherer first. Reach out. Take the risk. Say what you’re feeling. Listen well. Be the friend you wish others would be for you. 17 A while back my daughter Kate was out of town with her friend and her friend’s family, and when she called me to check in, I could tell by the sound of her voice that something was bugging her, that something was off. She’d been that way for a few days, so I took a risk and probed. Kate didn’t offer much information but did ask whether it would be okay with Zac and me if she talked with a counselor once she was back. Zac and I are wholehearted believers in the usefulness of counseling, believing that we all need “translators” from time to time to reflect back to us what we’re thinking and how we’re feeling, that we all need to hear the truth about ourselves in a safe environment, that we all need space to sort out our deeper needs, and that we all need help applying God’s Word to the realities of our lives. In short, this was an easy yes. “But before you book an appointment,” I said to Kate, “I want you to know you can always try me.” I told Kate that there was nothing I wouldn’t have grace for and that there was nothing that could impact my love for her. It took a lot of time and used up a lot of tears, but two hours later, when I was still on the phone with my incredible daughter, I felt more grateful for the power of community than I have in a long, long time. I found a greeting card at a café in Colorado Springs one time that featured a sketch of a lovable-looking bear with the words “We were together. I forget the rest.” That’s how I’ll always feel about that monumental phone chat with Kate.

• From A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (BDB) (1907)

  Tn n.f. dedication, consecration, as a matter of usage only P and late (N H ADA Feast of Dedication; so Aram. 813327])—abs. ‘mn Ne 127; estr. N23 Nu 7+ 6t.; dedication of wall of Jerus. Ne 12%, by sacrifices and processions, with music; of altar in temple 2Ch7°; of ‘the house’ y 30! (title), i.e. the temple (re-dedication by Judas Maccab., 1 Mace. 4°), vy, Ol Bae al. (opp. De), and esp. Che orm, 247° — dedication-offering for altar in taber- nacle Nu 7” (ace. אֶתקְרְבְּנֶם .61 ,( וַקְרִיבו.6‎ 334? mayan n22n2 v4, also v8 (all P; v Di Nu 7). tran n.f. hook fastened in jaw, fish-hook (NH ?0., Aram. 8939)—abs. ח"‎ Jb 40% + 2 +. Tah כְּלמשָלִיבִי באר‎ Is 19 (||), APB nbyn m3n2 Hb 1* (of O1N, who, v“, is comp. to DST ‘37, and 2), of MZNB לית‎ AAA Tb 40%. DIT +. sub j3n. T חנמאל‎ n.pr.m. (perh. = (חנן"אל‎ --1696- miah’s cousin, son of his uncle Je 327% cf. הח" דדי‎ y?; G Avapend. tba] n.[m.] only "פד בּחְנְמַל‎ (on form vy. (%-%7*עכ1‎ as instr. of destroying syco- mores ) || 73); meaning conject.; G UV frost. 71 חנן‎ vb. shew favour, be gracious (N H id., Aram. 720, )=; Ar. o> yearn towards, long for, be merciful, compassionate, favourable, inclined towards; Sab. חן‎ in n.pr. חן מסבררהם‎ DHM fier Denkm.40- Ph. pM in חן‎ favour, and n.pr. as ן חננבעל אלחנן‎ As. in deriv. annu, grace, favour, unninu, téninu nannu, id., Lotz TP Zim *)—Qal Pf. A Gn 33°; sf, חנני‎ Gn 33"; "22M 2 ₪ 12%; "N30 Ex 33"; 220 La 4°; Impf, 20. Am 5"; AY Dt 28"; ּחָן‎ 2 K 13"; sf. JIP Gn 43” 18 30”; Fe) Nu 6*; 336 חן

• From Get Out of Your Head: Stopping the Cycle of Anxious Thoughts (2020)

  She was rewiring her brain by choosing gratitude. She was allowing God to remake her, body and mind. Your Brain on Gratitude Victimhood is yet another enemy of our minds that keeps us fixated on something other than the God of the universe, believing the lie that we are at the mercy of circumstances. But we have a choice. We can center our thoughts on the certainty that, no matter what comes, we are upheld securely by God’s righteous right hand. 2 And that will shift our minds toward gratitude. A few years ago, the magazine Psychology Today referenced a study from the National Institutes of Health that reported that subjects who “showed more gratitude overall had higher levels of activity in the hypothalamus,” which, I will tell you, in case you, too, were doodling during your college biology lecture, is the part of your brain that controls bodily functions—eating, drinking, sleeping, the whole works.3 Doing something as straightforward as saying “Thank you” is like a tune-up for your inner world. Expressing gratitude caused subjects to experience an increase in dopamine hits, the reward neurotransmitter that makes the brain happy. In short, each time a subject expressed gratitude, the brain said, “Ooh! Do it again!” In this way, feeling gratitude led to feeling more gratitude, which led to feeling more and more gratitude still. “Once you start seeing things to be grateful for, your brain starts looking for more things to be grateful for.”4 Research has revealed seven key benefits to those who make gratitude a practice: “Gratitude opens the door to more relationships.” Something as simple as saying “Thanks” to someone you know only slightly makes that person more likely to look for friendship with you. “ Gratitude improves physical health.” When people are thankful, they exercise more, make better decisions about their health, and experience fewer aches and pains. “Gratitude improves psychological health.” It reduces harmful emotions such as jealousy, frustration, and regret. “Gratitude enhances empathy and reduces aggression.” One study found that “grateful people are more likely to behave in a prosocial manner,” which I think is a nice way of saying a grateful person is less likely to be a jerk. “Grateful people sleep better,” which is a good enough reason in itself for you and me to be grateful. “Gratitude improves self-esteem” and allows a person to genuinely celebrate the achievements of others instead of wishing she’d been the one to achieve. “Gratitude increases mental strength,” helping a person lower stress, overcome trauma, and increase resilience, even during bad times.5 Just one question: If gratitude is this good for us—and it is; God designed us that way—then why is it so hard to be grateful when life isn’t going the way we think it should? Are You Ready for a Shift?

• From Get Out of Your Head: Stopping the Cycle of Anxious Thoughts (2020)

  That purpose, you might guess, was to spread the gospel—God’s good news of love and grace. I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear…. I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.11 By choosing gratitude over victimhood, Paul centered his thoughts on God’s purpose behind the pain. He could focus on the impact of his imprisonment, which involved the palace guard coming to know Christ. He could see that God would always be on the move, whether in his life or through his death, whether in his peace or in his suffering. The ministry of the gospel through Paul was far from over; in fact, it was only just beginning. But to see God’s good purposes, we have to focus our gaze beyond our immediate situations. We have to remember that, even now, we have a choice: we can choose to praise and honor God right where we are, trusting that we serve a God who is both transcendent and immanent—fancy words for saying that His ways are beyond human understanding12 —yet He chooses to be near us, to be with us, even in the hardest times when we cannot yet see how He could possibly bring anything good from our circumstances. As I mentioned earlier, in the past five years, God’s plans for me have included my dearest friend suffering both a grueling divorce and a series of massive strokes, my baby sister having her idyllic life turned upside down, my oldest child leaving for college, our family being uprooted and relocated at least in part against our wills, an eighteen-month season of such intense disillusionment that I was sure I was losing my faith or losing my mind. I absolutely agree that God’s plans are benevolent and good. But perhaps I believe that only in the past tense. In the moment, when news of the stroke comes to me, when the decision is made to relocate, when doubt threatens to take me out—do I choose to be grateful for God’s plans then too? Let me tell you about two people who have embodied this choice of gratitude over victimhood. Dee was a captain in the US Navy who was set up on a blind date.

• From Generation Anxiety: A Millennial and Gen Z Guide to Staying Afloat in an Uncertain World (2023)

  You are a joy to work with every step of the way. Madyn Singh, thank you for making TikTok possible. I wouldn’t be here without your advice . . . and hashtags. And to my dear friend, Amy Riordan, who has become one of the staunchest supporters of this book. Girl, you seriously blow me away. It’s wild to think we got connected through Facebook back in the day with the Sunny Girl and Bucket List Bound adventures. Now, ten years later, we have our boys and a wonderful friendship where we are always learning from each other. I can’t thank you enough for all that you’ve done to help promote the book. I truly could not have done this without you. I truly love what I get to do as a psychologist and part of that is because I get to learn every day. Thank you to my clients who have opened their hearts and minds to me in the most beautiful way. I am inspired daily by your courage to lean into life. You have shown me how to live bravely and because “I’ve known you, I have been changed for good.” Hey, what would an acknowledgments section be without a little Broadway reference from this former theater kid? I’m also heartened by the therapists that I’ve been able to sit with through the years. From USC, Dr. Greg Henderson (who we will always miss), thank you for being my very first teacher in grad school who taught us to be “people first.” Dr. Mary Andres, Dr. Ginger Clark, Dr. Sandy Smith, Dr. Michael Morris, Dr. Ilene Rosenstein, and the entire Rossier faculty—what an indescribable gift to learn from each of you. Thank you to my first supervisor, Joanne Weidman, for giving me the opportunity to see my very first client and for patiently guiding me as I was learning that I didn’t know anything about anything as a trainee. Those were the days. From Pepperdine, Dr. Cohen, Dr. Woo, Dr. Brunn, Dr. Bryant-Davis, Dr. Keatinge, and too many others, thank you for providing the best brain health boot camp that ever was. You taught us to always follow the science but to still come back to the heart. To my USD family, thank you for the most amazing training year of my life (in sunny San Diego, no less!). Dr. Thackray and Dr. Franklin, thank you for your gifted supervision. To my fellow interns, Carly and Hana, I count my lucky stars every day that we matched together. I hope our friendships are for life. To my CAMPUSPEAK family—you were the first ones who believed in me as a speaker. David Stollman, thank you for this incredible opportunity that has opened so many doors.

• From A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (BDB) (1907)

  with his kindness 65 53 Ew Hup De Pe Che Bae; his 18 the kindness ו‎ 62"; itis with him 130’; he delights init Mi7®. | 1. specif. lovingkind- hess: a. inredemption from enemiesand troubles Gn 19° 39” (J), Ex 15'*(song), Je31° Ezr7** 9° yer aye ag aan 07 42° Ast 48” 59." 6629 85° go" 94% 1 Nea Jb 575 Ru 18 ges men should trust in it ~ 13°52"; rejoice in it 31°; hope in it 33 1477. b. in preservation of life from death 6° 86° Jb1o™”. | 6. in quick- ening of spiritual life wy 1097 1 19817-81%4-199.199, d. in redemption from sin W25' 51°. @. in keeping the covenants, with Abraham Mi 7”; with Moses and Israel 707(3)) N23 שמר‎ heep- eth the covenant and the lovingkindness Dt 7°” 1 K 88=2 Ch6", Ne 1° 9” Dno‘*; with David and his dynasty 2 8 7¥=1 Ch 17%, 28 22%= 18", 1K 3°'=2Chi', 89”; with the wife Zion Is 54". 2. 101) is grouped with other divine attributes: ואמת‎ 1DN kindness (loving- kindness) and fidelity Gn24” (J), 25" 407? 57* 61° 85% 89" 115! 1387; עשה ח' ואמת עם‎ 2S 2° 15% (G,v. Dr); רב ח' ואמת‎ Ex 34° (JE), ¥ 86%; also || אמת‎ Mi 7” y 26° 1177; || אמוּנָה‎ 88" 89° 92°; וח'‎ ANON ץ ח' ואמונה ;"89 ץ‎ 985; || ח' ורחמים ;77° + רחמים‎ Je 16° Ho 27 y103'; ש צדקה || ;’101 ץ 369% ח' ומשפט‎ ש טוב וח"‎ "% 3. the kindness of God is a. abundant: IOI abundant, plenteous in kindness (goodness) Nu 14° (J), Ne 9” (Qr), Jo 25 Jon 4? 86° 103° (cf. Ex 34° JE; 86"); FIO רב‎ Ne 13” ץ‎ 5° 69" 106' (G B Aq &, to be preferred to MT (חסְרֶיף‎ yon רב‎ La 3” 106*(Kt G in both to be preferred). b. great in extent : 1 greatness of thy mercy Nu 14” (J); mv 145°; 16 is kept for thousands Ex34’(JE),Je32”, esp. of those connected with lovers of *, Ex 20°= Dt 5"; for 1000 generations Dt 7°; it is great as the heavens py 57" 103", ef. 36° 108°; the earth is full of it ~ 33° 119% c. everlasting : לעולם הפר‎ Je ea tr Ch 16%4 2Ch5® 7° 207! Ezr 3" עו‎ 100° 1067 1071 1181* B49 7 362606) - לעולם‎ JION y 138°; ח' מעולם‎ ץ ועד עולם‎ 1037; ody ח' אל כל ;54% 19 ח'‎ היום‎ 52%. d. good: חַסְדְּךָ‎ AWD 697 109"; כי טוב חסדף מחיים‎ +? 63%. 4. pl. mercies, deeds of kindness, the historic displays of loving- kindness to Israel : shewn to Jacob Gn32"(R); 839 חסדיה but mostly late Is 637 285 897; חפדיו‎ 343 Ts 63’, see 3a; promised in the Davidic covenant דָוִיר ;89% ש‎ “IDO mercies to David Is 55° 2 Ch 6”; mercies in general La 3” 177 107%*— TDN in n.pr.m. בן-ח"‎ v. sub ]3. On 19 20” Pr 14™ vy. .זז‎ 109 sub 11. .חסד‎

• From A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (BDB) (1907)

  13°) 285% 309 i 8* (D) 2S 7° ץ‎ 3° 217 133° ו 44° ה‎ 445 10 2 aC: 3°; ברכת יהוה‎ Gn 39° (J) Dt 12° 16% 33% ץ‎ 129% Pr 107; " ברכה מאת‎ W 24°; ברכת אברהם‎ Gn 28" (P), the blessing given to Abraham. 6. of the people, in recognition of good men 109” Pr 10% 11° 24” 28". d. of a@ poor man, in recognition of benefits Jb 29". 2. source of blessing : Abraham.Gn 12? (J); Israel Is 19* Ez 34% 20 8"; seed of the righteous Vv 37° the king y 21‘; memory of the righteous Pr 10’; new wine Is65°. ‘8. blessing, prosperity: בברכת ישרים‎ by the prosperity of the upright (the city is exalted) 211"; גם ברכות יעטה‎ MD yea, the early rain covereth with blessings ץש‎ 847 cf. Gn 49°; וארותי את ברכותיכם‎ and I will curse your prosperity Mal 2%. 4. bless- ing, praise of God Ne 9°. 5. a gift, present Gn 337 (E) Jos 15% (J) "דט‎ 18 25" ze 2 5; 7272 W2 a liberal person Pr 11% (cf. Syr. 5 Eth. A2nt:). 6. treaty of peace 2 K Is 36".‏ = 8% ד n.pr.loc. valley in wilderness‏ .1 רכה .זנ by Tekoa 2 Ch 20°; mod. Bereikiit cf. Be & reff. 2. n. pr.m. one 01 David’s band 1 Ch 12°, ברו Ty. n.pr.m. (blessed) 1. friend and amanuensis of Jeremiah Je 321° 36** 435° 457 2. a priest, son of Zabbai (Zaccai) Ne 39 107. 3. son of Colhozeh, of the tribe of Judah Ne "זז‎ Tra n.f. pool, pond ו הברכה)‎ valve. BS; ברכת רה‎ Sab. Denkm.”; Aram. (בְּרִיכְתָא‎ > ב'-‎ 2 8 28 4? 2K 87 )= Is 36°) 20% Ne3* cig 2 an 2-כ ל ברכת‎ Nie Ke 2° Ct 7°.‏ בְּרְכות ג fous n.pr.m. (El doth bless, of. Ph. ברבבעל‎ pale בל ברך‎ Vog"”, Bab. Bariki-iliOpp TASTER Nove eCe 9 father ia Elihu Jb 327°. Tarp יר רכ‎ n.pr.m. (S712 s. Yah blesseth Ges” 9 father of a Zechariah in Isaiah’s time Is 8%; usually in abbreviated form as foll.: m222, 1. son of Zerubbabel 1 Ch 3% 2. a Levite guard of the ark 1Cho%15*. 3. father of Meshullam, one of Nehemiah’s chiefs Ne 3**° 6'8. 4. father of the prophet Zechariah Ze 1'= 373 v’; בַּרְכְיָהוּ‎ also 5. father of Asaph 106" 15), 6. Ephraimite chief 2 Ch 28”. THINS, WIAD v. MNP! supra. (cf. Ar. an twist a rope of twostrands).‏ ברם / ברמים‎ n[m.] variegated cloth (Ar. - בע‎ rope (or fabric) of two strands or colours ; cf. As. birmu, a kind of clothing COTS, burmu, tris, 211 9755; on burimu cf. J 6 p>) pia Ez 27%, NIN: 6 .קדש,ב"‎ Tyra n.pr.m. king of Sodom Gn 14? (Vv unknown ; © Badaa). Taya n.pr.m. 1. a son of Asher Gn

• From A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (BDB) (1907)

  bended knees: acc. ”* ברך‎ Gn 24*)1( Dt 8° Ju 57° 1Ch29”™ 2 Ch20"31° Neg’ ~16' 26" 34° 63° 103722 זז‎ = p34)? ברבי ;1457 ד‎ 4 ברך שם ;*'104 ?)103 ץ נפשי את‎ bless the name of Yahweh Ne 9° ברך ;"145° 100% 967 ץש‎ אלהים‎ Jos 22% y 66° 687 (doubtless for an original יהוה‎ (, with זל‎ Ch 29”; אָוָן‎ 7120 15 66° (of idolatrous worship). 2. God blesses a. men: abs. Nu 23” (E) 109%; with acc. Gn ao 48” Ex 20% Nu 24! Jos 24” (E) Gn 12% go 2426" 30%” 30° 49” Jos 17° (J) Gn 12% (2 g! 1 251 26%** 283 359 4 483 Nu 6227 (P) Dt a gr 433 got rae ות‎ TO 23 24% .9 26” 288 30% Ju ו % 2 ד‎ -12 ia I Ch 4° 1 26° 2 Ch 31% Ne 8* Ru 2* 7 + 5 28° 29! ד "107 "677 למ‎ 728° 134° 1478 Pr 3° 15107 517 61° 706 31% Hg 2”. b. things: sabbath Gn 2* Ex 20" (P); field Gn 277 (E); bread Ex 23” (E); work Dt 28° Jb 1” ef. Dt 337 ץש‎ 65" 132”. 3. men bless men: priests & kings בשם י'‎ Dt 10° 21° 2 ₪ 6% 1 Ch 16° 23% W129°; Melchizedek Abraham Ss 14”; Moses Dt 33' Ex 12% 39%; Joshua Jos 14% 22°"; priests Ly 97 Nu 65 Dt 27” Jos8* 202307 + ד‎ Solomon 1. 8'** (=2Ch6*); David 5 63 (=1 Ch 16*) 19”; Eli tS 2"; Balaam Nu 22* 2311-9 24; fathers, esp. on death- nel Gn 27% +12 t. Gn 27 (all JE) 28'* (P) 32) (E) 48° (Ey 20°" 497 Q) 2813”; in consecrating a sacrifice 1% 4. salute, greet, with an invocation of blessing (stronger than :(שלום‎ with thee will Israel bless Gn‏ בך יברך ישראל 48°(E). a. in meeting Gn 47‘ (P) 2 K 49 10” | 1813”. b. in departing Gn24”(J) 47° (P) 1K 8%. c. by messengers 18 25% 288" 1Ch 18°. d. in gratitude Jb 31” Pr 30" Nerr’.

• From Pleasure Activism (2017)

  Write up your pleasure activism lineage! Who awakened your senses? Who politicized your experiences of body, identity, sensation, feeling good? If they are still living, have you thanked them properly? If yes, good, do it again. If not, reach out. If they are ancestors, honor them with a pleasure altar covered in sticky fruit, sweet smells, sacred water, and thick earth, centered around fire. Gratitude is part of pleasure too. 18 Yes, I said “heard”—get your life by searching for the video in which you can hear Audre Lorde read the essay while looking at her incredible face.19 See Audre Lorde, “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power,” this volume, p. 27.20 Learn more about my facilitation and training work at www.alliedmedia.org/esii.21 “An Interview with Toni Cade Bambara,” by Kay Bonetti, in Conversations with Toni Cade Bambara, ed. Thabiti Lewis, (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2012), 35–47.Uses of the EroticThe Erotic as Power Audre Lorde There are many kinds of power, used and unused, acknowledged or otherwise.22 The erotic is a resource within each of us that lies in a deeply female and spiritual plane, firmly rooted in the power of our unexpressed or unrecognized feeling.23 In order to perpetuate itself, every oppression must corrupt or distort those various sources of power within the culture of the oppressed that can provide energy for change. For women, this has meant a suppression of the erotic as a considered source of power and information within our lives. We have been taught to suspect this resource, vilified, abused, and devalued within western society. On the one hand, the superficially erotic has been encouraged as a sign of female inferiority; on the other hand, women have been made to suffer and to feel both contemptible and suspect by virtue of its existence. It is a short step from there to the false belief that only by the suppression of the erotic within our lives and consciousness can women be truly strong. But that strength is illusory, for it is fashioned within the context of male models of power. As women, we have come to distrust that power which rises from our deepest and nonrational knowledge. We have been warned against it all our lives by the male world, which values this depth of feeling enough to keep women around in order to exercise it in the service of men, but which fears this same depth too much to examine the possibilities of it within themselves. So women are maintained at a distant/inferior position to be psychically milked, much the same way ants maintain colonies of aphids to provide a life-giving substance for their masters. But the erotic offers a well of replenishing and provocative force to the woman who does not fear its revelation, nor succumb to the belief that sensation is enough.

• From Generation Anxiety: A Millennial and Gen Z Guide to Staying Afloat in an Uncertain World (2023)

  If you’ve ever had a panic attack, you know how brutal it can be. I’ve been to therapy for these experiences throughout my life and I’ve seen what has worked . . . and what hasn’t. As you’ll see throughout this book, talk therapy is just one path to healing. There are so many options, both evidence based and less researched (but heartily client endorsed), that can work for you. I invite you to have an open mind about what you need—and not just blindly follow what someone is telling you to do. Whether it’s acupuncture, massage therapy, exercise, art therapy, or naturopathy, there are so many tools that go beyond a Westernized approach to care. While I’m all for well-researched methods, I’m just as much for client advocacy and culturally centered forms of healing. If it feels like it is helping you (even though the research may not strictly back it up), then that is enough when it comes to anxiety management. There’s also something I want to be clear on before we proceed. As a feminist therapist, I think it’s crucial that we eliminate the power differential where I am perceived as the expert and you, the client, are perceived as the student in need. If anything, you and I are both just trying to figure this thing out together. Yes, I worked hard to get my credentials and my license number as a practicing psychologist. I would hope that the time, dollars, and energy would allow me to proffer something fruitful and valuable to you. But at the end of the day, I’m right alongside you—coming to this work humbly and with a sense of open curiosity. I’m also sharing composite stories from the therapy space based on recurrent themes that I have seen from some of the hundreds of clients I have worked with, in the hope that you will see your stories in theirs. All client identities and life details have been protected so that their confidentiality is maintained at all times. The demographics and experiences I will share are compilations of different cases, so that no one client is recognizable. Thus, if you were to go out looking for Mikaela, Jacob, Nikita, or any of the “clients” you’re soon to meet, you wouldn’t find them, as the specific person described in each chapter doesn’t in fact exist in the real world. What does exist are the thoughts, feelings, and actions portrayed here in this book as I have seen these patterns of anxiety play out time and time again. As you hear these client journeys, may you be heartened in knowing that you are not alone in your own battle with anxiety and pain.

• From Pleasure Activism (2017)

  Alexis’s note: I have read and written about the work of Toni Cade Bambara for decades. I have sifted through her archival papers at Spelman College (which, by the way, consist of ideas written on napkins, candy wrappers, coupons, and receipts). But when I thought about what I knew about Toni Cade Bambara and pleasure, I realized I knew it best through my own lived experience, my own incredible fortune of having been loved, mentored, and taught by five Black women who create joy and clarity in the tradition of Toni Cade Bambara. So this offering is gratitude and celebration for the lessons of Toni Cade Bambara, not through her texts but through my personal witness of the impact of her self-identified students, loved ones, mentees, and collaborators: scholar Farah Jasmine Griffin, filmmaker and activist Aishah Shahidah Simmons, artist and abolitionist Kai Lumumba Barrow, healer and organizer Cara Page, and editor and intellectual activist Cheryll Y. Greene. With love. Alexis. The Gift for Farah Jasmine Griffin Those of us that have been taught by Farah Griffin have felt cherished. Not precious. Not perfect. Not without growing to do. But necessary. And dreamt of. And held. And when she helps us. When she reads our work. When she writes us recommendations. When we turn back to thank her, she says: “Oh, it’s my pleasure.” And we believe her. Farah Griffin is grace. Gifted from the practiced mouths and lungs, the practiced muscles and lines of Black women who believed in freedom diligently enough to call out for it. Farah Jasmine Griffin writes about Black women, in relation, connected to generations of other Black women, connected to multi-gendered communities of possibility. Connected to her own self in a way that has space for critique but is never expendable. For Toni Cade Bambara, Farah Jasmine Griffin is a daughter of Philadelphia, one of the several Black cities in which Bambara lived and loved. In the tradition of Toni Cade Bambara, Farah Griffin is a daydreamer and nightdreamer of Harlem. A celebrant, curator, and critical participant in the Black culture of sound, spirit, and word happening in Harlem now, documenting a legacy of generations. For Toni Cade Bambara, Farah Griffin is a disciple willing to follow her not only to Cuba but also to the dangerous and hopeful places of Black girl possibility, perspective, and precarity.

• From Pleasure Activism (2017)

  Seven years later, I have a much deeper understanding of the ways that my desires for partnership and intimacy have also been shaped by my childhood trauma. My desire for gender transition did serve as an important guide for my politics. That desire was powerful and unwavering in the face of oppression and violence on the institutional and individual levels. Additionally, that desire led me to learn about queer, antiracist, and anticolonial politics in an effort to better understand my own heritage as a mixed-race first-generation Colombian-American woman born in the United States. I see now how my long-term partners in relationships did provide me with a great deal of emotional support, and I am profoundly grateful for their care and patience. Often, being in a relationship with a trans woman can mean putting yourself into a small degree of the danger she is facing. On too many occasions to count, I had partners stand up for me verbally or even physically, putting themselves in harm’s way for my safety. Additionally, I had partners who provided emotional and financial stability through some of my most difficult times. I will never forget these kind acts of generosity. Today I am profoundly grateful for the healing I have found in the past few years. Once I was stable in my career, I was able to shift my focus to emotional healing. Thanks to a nonhierarchical, spiritual community of women that I encountered, I began to be able to see the connections between my childhood trauma, the violence I had experienced, and my own choices. I have, in recent years, finally been able to build a deep self-love and self-respect that I did not learn from queer communities or radical political communities, where I often felt further devalued, excluded, and objectified. I have found a refuge in people committed to healing, service, and sobriety, and this has given me the tools to question my desire and my part in putting myself in situations that caused me to feel devalued. By finding a supportive community, I have come to understand how my desires in intimate relationships have been shaped by trauma and have often re-created those traumas. I agreed to contribute to this anthology with the hope of sharing my experience and strength in finding new, healthy forms of desire and intimacy. Now I see that I have to actually love myself. Through devotion to self-care, meditation, and the practice of self-love and directing lovingkindness, or metta, toward myself, I am starting to feel a self-love that provides me a basis to feel love for others and receive love that is more than just validation. In her essay “Situated Knowledges,” Donna Haraway put it simply when she said “we are not immediately present to ourselves.”80 This is especially true for survivors of trauma and for people who have generations of trauma history, such as the traumas of alcoholism, abuse, war, and colonization.

• From Pleasure Activism (2017)

  Taja. I’m just so grateful to be able to do the work that I’m doing in the times that we’re in. Figuring out how to be a multidimensional human being inside of a system that wants us to choose just one aspect of ourselves. Being able to be an artist and put a lot of time into that. Cultivating such beautiful communities who are reflections of me in different ways, and I’m just so grateful that I get to be alive during this time. I remember thinking in high school when I would read about the civil rights movement and just being like, damn, I think I was born at the wrong time. amb. Yes! I totally felt that! Taja. I was like, dammit, I think I was supposed to come down here earlier, what’s going on? And then: now I look around, and I’m, like, “girlll.” amb. You were not late for your whole life. Taja. Right, not late at all. There is so much more work to do, and I’m grateful to just be alive and doing that work. 105 Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Life to Higher Creativity (New York: TarcherPerigree, 1992).106 Collins, Black Feminist Thought.107 Carter Godwin Woodson, The Mis-education of the Negro (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1998); Malcolm X and Alex Haley, The Autobiography of Malcolm X (New York: Ballantine Publishing Group, 1965).Burlesque and LiberationMichi Osato and Una Osato [image file=image_rsrc3M5.jpg] Michi Ilona Osato and Una Aya Osato are sisters, performers, writers, and educators who use burlesque to explore their identities as queer femmes of color. They are co-founders, with Dawn Crandell (aka Miss AuroraBoobRealis), of brASS Burlesque: Brown RadicalAss Burlesque, a multidisciplinary performance troupe based in New York City. brASS uses their unique perspectives as femmes of color as a lens to the myriad issues they are faced with in society. Through celebrations of their politicized bodies, they are making politics sexy and empowering audiences to value their own stories and use their creativity toward collective action. Una, aka exHOTic other, aka Norms, is a queer femme Japanese self-loving anti-Zionist Jew. She is a performer, writer, and educator from the far, far east … of NYC. Her love for fully embodying her politics led her to burlesque. ExHOTic other has performed in dozens of venues, from New York City’s iconic Joe’s Pub to the bright lights of Vegas for the Miss Exotic World and Burlesque Hall of Fame competitions. Una is also an award-winning actor and playwright who tours her work nationally and internationally, while, duh, eating orientalism for brunch. Since graduating from Wesleyan University, she has created six award-winning shows that she performs in theaters, festivals, conferences, clubs, universities, community organizations, classrooms, and prisons.

• From Pleasure Activism (2017)

  I don’t remember the answer I gave to that Stanford student that day, but I do know that I’ve been attempting to answer his question ever since. I’m grateful for the uncertainty. The intervention I hope to make through my own scholarship is to articulate a politics of pleasure that positions pleasure not only as desirable goal and a social and political imperative, but also as an under-theorized resistance strategy for black women in the United States and the Caribbean. In doing so, I hope to make a contribution to black feminist thought that encourages recognition of black women’s pleasure (sexual and otherwise) as not only an integral part of fully realized humanity, but one that understands that a politics of pleasure is capable of intersecting, challenging, and redefining dominant narratives about race, beauty, health and sex in ways that are generative and necessary.