gratitude is the state of being grateful: a felt thankfulness toward someone or something for a benefit received, carrying a readiness to acknowledge it or return the kindness.
The word entered English in the mid-fifteenth century from Medieval Latin gratitudo, built on Latin gratus, "thankful, pleasing." Its earliest English sense was closer to "good will"; the meaning "thankfulness" is recorded from the 1560s. Gratus is a prolific root, and gratitude shares it with grace, gratis, gratuity, gratify, congratulate, and ingrate — a family organized around favor freely given and the response it calls for.
Gratitude is often used interchangeably with 📝appreciation, but the two lean in different directions. Appreciation is recognition of value, and it needs no benefactor: one can appreciate a sunset or a well-made argument. Gratitude implies a gift, and so a giver, even when that giver is as diffuse as life or circumstance. It is also distinct from thanks, which is the expression; gratitude is the underlying state that thanks puts into words, and it can be present long before, or without, anything being said.
"Whatever you can't say thank you for is your baggage." ~📝The Goal Digger
"What if you woke up tomorrow with only the things you were grateful for today?"
I treat gratitude as something to make visible. 📝Gratitude Graffiti is an adventure in leaving impermanent notes of thanks and kindness in public, and the 📝Gratitude Garden at 📝Symposium gives guests paper and markers for crafting love notes.