I don’t know if anyone else has noticed this, but lately I often hear people saying, “Thank You So Much”, instead of just simply “Thanks!”. It doesn’t bother or irritate me, but I find it curious. I wonder if it is related to the crazy times we are living through. Are we adding those two words — “so much” — in an attempt to express more than the usual, cliched gratitude to each other? If so, why? Do we sense at some level of our being that we are all hurting, we are all in pain as we navigate through life in a time of pandemic, social upheaval, and economic uncertainty? Are we trying to let each other know that we send extra care, concern, compassion out into the universe with the addition of “so much” to the word “thanks”? In his book, The Way of Gratitude, A New Spirituality for Today, Unitarian Universalist minister Galen Guengerich maintains that the practice of gratitude is a spiritual practice, one that can bring meaning and joy into our lives. To understand what spirituality involves is to understand that we have to be both free individuals and belong to each other at the same time. We also have to wrestle with — and accept — the concept of openness as we become spiritual seekers and learn how to practice gratitude.