Henry David Thoreau wrote, “I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite – only a sense of existence.” Thanksgiving Day may be behind us, but our existence isn’t, and when we’re grateful we exist, when we’re grateful we’re alive, our thanksgiving becomes perpetual while we live it—a continuous “thank you” fills the moments of our life.
When we appreciate our life, whether we’re thinking about certain people or particular things around us, and when we look around us and appreciate particular people and things we see, it’s easy to feel grateful. In fact, it’s easier to feel grateful in particular than it is to feel grateful in perpetuity, i.e., to cultivate an attitude of gratitude in general, grateful for nothing definite but our own sense of existence.
A perpetual attitude of gratitude includes our being grateful even before we see something or someone to be grateful for; it’s living in ungrounded positivity; it’s being miracle-minded; it’s seeing Life Itself, and our self in Life, as the miracle It is. We are Loved perpetually by a Universe that is loving everything within It, and everything within It is Love, including you and me.
Eckhart Tolle wrote: “You are not IN the Universe, you ARE the Universe, an intrinsic part of It. Ultimately you are not a person, but a focal point where the Universe is becoming conscious of Itself. What an amazing miracle.” In any moment that we become aware of our true Nature, in any moment we become conscious of our Self as a Being of Love, in that moment we experience our Oneness with the Universe of Love, and that moment is miraculous. Healings occur in such a miraculous moment, forgiveness occurs in such a miraculous moment, the abundant good that’s always Present is revealed to us in such a miraculous moment.
Miracles are everywhere, all the time. We read in A Course in Miracles, “Miracles are natural. When they do not occur something has gone wrong.” But to live each moment aware that it’s miraculous might feel overwhelming to us. We may wonder how much good we can allow our self to experience in this life without feeling like a spiritual Farmer in the Dell: With a miracle miracle here, and a miracle miracle there, here a miracle, there a miracle, everywhere a miracle miracle. How can we live a normal human life with that kind of thinking in a world that often seems mundane at best, and so very unmiraculous with its contrasts, conflicts and opposites?!
But miracles only seem unnatural and overwhelming to us if we’ve gotten out of the habit of naturally feeling good about Life, and our self in Life, all the time, no matter what—grateful for what we are, grateful for what we have, grateful for what was, grateful for what is, and grateful for what’s next. Perpetual thanksgiving is feeling good about life as we live it. It’s feeling happy we’re alive to experience existence at all.
But if we’re waiting for something in particular to show up that hasn’t shown up yet or if we’re having a personal challenge, and with all the things going on in the world, how can we be content with nothing definite but our own sense of existence? How can we remain positive until what we’re wanting to show up, shows up, in our individual life or the world around us? If we walk around feeling good, and expressing happiness and positivity perpetually, we’d not only be irritating to many, but appear crazy to most! Friedrich Nietzsche wrote: “And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.”
The Pure Positive Energy of Life, the Holy Vibration of Joy that fills Universe of which we’re all intrinsic part, is always emanating dance music, meditation music, a love song, but we have to allow our self to have ears to hear it. When our head is filled with noise caused by our focus on negative conditions and events, there’s discord in our mind. Gratitude for what we are and have, and contentment with nothing definite, opens our inner ears to the Sound Track of the Universe.
There’s no danger to our sanity for us to live in perpetual thanksgiving, with a mind aware of constant miracles, because that is our true Nature. Joy is a gift of our Spirit, an attribute of the Energy of the Universe. Joy naturally flows to us every moment, and as us when we allow It to. The danger to our sanity isn’t too much Joy, it’s too much judgment, too many opinions, and too much unworthiness that doesn’t allow us to accept the miracle Life is and the miracle we are within It.
When we’re underwhelmed by Life, and when we’re underwhelmed being our self, we don’t allow our True Nature to enter our awareness. And, such unawareness of the goodness Life affects our experience of health and well-being, our relationships with others, and our encounters with everything we call Life. Without appreciation and gratitude for what we are and what we see around us, life holds no meaning.
In the Aramaic Bible, in the Book of Mark, we read: “For how is a man benefited if he should gain the whole world and he should lose his own soul.” What good does it do us for others to appreciate us if we don’t appreciate being our self? What does it matter what position we hold in the world or in our family, or how many possessions we have, if we’re not happy and content living Life?
There is more than enough Love living in us to meet our desire to perpetually live as the loving Being we’re created to be. There is more than enough Joy in our soul to lighten every step in this human experience. Eckhart Tolle wrote, “The joy of Being, which is the only true happiness, cannot come to you through some form, possession, accomplishment, person, or event, through something that happens. This joy cannot come to you ever. It emanates from the formless dimension within you, from your own consciousness, and therefore is one with who you are.”
We experience the Good Life by discovering we’re an intrinsic part of the Good Life, and by living as who we are no matter how “unrealistic” others may think we are. The Good Life, the God Life, is the only living Reality within all Life—no exceptions regardless of circumstances or behaviors. Perpetual thanksgiving is the cure for Divine Dementia, i.e., we remember that Life is good (and so are we) after all! We’re happy and content with a sense of our own existence, grateful we’re alive! We realize Life is a Joyful Miracle because we feel that Joy within us for no reason at all except we exist to feel It!
Our gratefulness allows the Joy that is, the same Joy that burst forth from God as Creation, to burst forth in us. Ever feel so happy you felt like you were bursting at the seams, so to speak? In that moment you were feeling the Joy of God expanding you so that more of YOU could come through! We are here to have the time of our life—to enjoy health and well-being, loving relationships, and financial abundance. We’re here to dance, to sing, and to live a life that feels good to live.
Abraham-Hicks tells us, “If you know that all is well, you know all you need to know. And if you know life is supposed to be fun, you know more than almost anybody else knows. And, if you know that the way you feel is your indicator of how connected you are to Source, then you know that which only a handful of Deliberate Creators, respective to the total population, really know.”
When we remember that’s true, when we remember we are One with an Unlimited Source that is loving us every moment, and wanting the good for us that we want for our self, we’re able to live as Rumi said, “As if the Universe is rigged in our favor.” We’re content being who we are, wherever we are, because we know we’re connected to the Whole Universe even if we’re just sitting in our living room. We affect the world not through counter action or perceptual friction, but through our vibration.
If we want to affect the world in a good way, we need to vibe high. The vibration of gratitude and Joy we feel (anytime) travels everywhere—like a burst of light from the center of our heart out in every direction into world around us. It not only touches everything in front of us, but behind us as well. We could say that Joy heals the past even as It creates a joyous future.
We’re not overwhelmed by moment-to-moment miracles when we’re miracle-minded because we expect nothing less. We read in A Course in Miracles, “All miracles mean life, and God is the Giver of life.” How many miracles can occur in our life in one day? As many as we allow our self to receive. So the question for all of us is this: “How big is your allowance?
A focus on gratitude feels almost magical in the awareness it brings to our mind of the beauty and loveliness all around us that Life is all about. Sadhguru wrote, “Every moment a million miracles are happening all around you: a flower blooming, a bird singing, a bee singing, a raindrop falling, a snowflake floating in the clear night air. There is magic everywhere. If you learn to live it, life will be nothing short of a daily miracle.”
Gratitude and appreciation allow us to see the preciousness that is present in each moment. It transforms the every day into a special day. We don’t wait for Life to impress us; we don’t take a mental stance with our arms crossed waiting for Life to show us something to “Wow” about. We know that miracles are already there and that it is up to us to recognize their presence.
Miracle-mindedness is the daily awareness that it is how we’re feeling about Life. It’s what we’re thinking about our self, others and the world as we live Life that causes us to see Life as we see It. Gratitude and appreciation increases our Joy level. We laugh more and forgive more quickly. We are the “see-er,” the decider of what Life is to us, and there is nothing mundane to the miracle-minded.
A good question to ask our self might be: “As I look around me, and as I look within me, does the Life I see look like something to celebrate?” Thich Nhat Hahn wrote, “Life is a miracle, and simply being aware of it can make us very happy.” When we intentionally choose an attitude of gratitude we’re naturally happy, and we all know that when we’re happy we’re not looking for trouble! We want to look for the good within us and around us and praise It. As we praise, applaud and cheer the goodness of Life, our positivity meter goes up higher and higher. And, from that higher, happier, grateful point of view, Life can often appear magical.
Gratitude causes us to be high on Life because it reveals Life to us as it’s created to be. Life IS good, but it’s our moment to moment practice of knowing that’s true, no matter what’s happening, that causes us to side-step or bypass the struggle to be happy, and to Wow Now. We attract people who are happy and enjoying being alive. We see people who are caring about one another, sharing with each other, and living with a peaceful, loving lightness in which there is ease and well-being.
The Law of Attraction that governs the Universe, and everything in It including all of us, always knows perfectly what It’s doing. And, what It’s doing is continuously matching up vibrations in the Unseen, but not un-felt, Field of Energy in which we live. There’s no magical power, out there somewhere, that has the power to change how we see Life individually. There’s no slight of hand that can bring to us the good things we want if we’re not vibrationally ready to receive and experience whatever it is.
Abraham-Hicks tells us, “If there is something that you desire and it’s not coming to you, it always means the same thing: You’re not a vibrational match to your own desire.” For example, we can’t match our desire for world peace and live in conflict with others and fight against the things that happen in the world. And, we can’t experience the good life we want to see while we’re focused on the not-so-good that we want to go away. It’s our conscious desire to see life differently, and our practice of seeing it that way, that changes what we send out vibrationally so that we’re a match to our own desire for good. It’s our conscious intention to see our self and others more spiritually that changes our point of view and our point of attraction.
The Law of Attraction has only one Rule of Thumb: that which is like unto itself is drawn, or said another way, what goes around, comes around. There’s no opposing law anywhere in the Universe to buck the system of the Law of Attraction that governs the Energetic Field of Life. If we’re alive, if we have thought, we’re participating in that Field of Energy whether we want to or not. What goes around as the result of our thinking, comes around as the experiences of our life. The miraculous thing is that even if we don’t like what comes around, it still means the Laws of the Universe are responding to us! We’re a part of the Big Picture, the Big Bang, the One Creation that is the Beloved of God!
We are so known to the Source of our Creation that our Source knows where we are, and how we’re feeling, every moment. We can’t hide under a rock or in our room and keep our vibrational output unseen by an All-Knowing Universe. Abraham-Hicks tells us, “Only when you have a conscious working knowledge of these Universal Laws are you able to be the Deliberate Creator of your own life experience.” When we practice the high vibration of gratitude and appreciation it expands what our mind is able to perceive of the good Life.
It’s been said that few people realize that they have control over the way they feel, and that they can positively affect things that come into their life by deliberately directing their thoughts. But, if you’ve been following us for awhile, then you do! And when you remember that’s true, when you remember that when you choose to look for something good in the moments of your life—no matter what may be happening in your own body or around you, and no matter what others may be seeing and talking about—you can’t fail but to experience something good.
We know that when we feel good, we’re aligned with our Inner Being, our Spirit, the full Beauty of who we truly are. If we want to see and experience more good in our life, and through us more good in the world, there’s no downside to our focusing on gratitude and appreciation for Life as we live It. Rather than waiting until Thanksgiving Day, we can jump-start our thankfulness today. We don’t have to wait, we can “Wow Now” because every moment a million miracles are happening all around us.
The song, “I’m so grateful I’m alive,” by Gary Lynn Floyd and Jami Lula is a beautiful reminder of the gifts our senses give us everyday when it comes to being grateful we’re alive. Starting today and through Thanksgiving Day, you may want to make a list of four things about each of the five senses for which you are grateful.
For example, any of us have happy memories that certain smells bring to mind NOW. I love the smell of a pipe being smoked because the smell happily reminds me of my dad. When we see, hear, taste, touch, or smell something that causes us to remember a happy time, it’s cause to be grateful. There is a lot in the Holiday Season that touches our hearts as it touches our senses.
But to make our list an affective process for raising our vibration of appreciation while we living Life Now, it’s important that whatever we write down each day causes us to feel Grateful we’re alive that day and to appreciate Life as we’re living It in the Present Moment. In this way, as we keep our attitude of gratitude primed at the pump all through the day, we’ll be living our life so that it is nothing short of a daily miracle.
Abraham-Hicks tells us, “In the vibration of appreciation all things come to you. You don’t have to make anything happen. From what you are living, amplify the things you appreciate so that its the dominate vibration you are offering and then only those things that are a vibrational match to that can come to you. Then sit back and know, “You ain’t seen nothing yet!!!”
How many of us are discovering that a focus on gratitude is causing good things to multiply in this month of Thanksgiving? Rumi wrote, “Watch for all that beauty reflecting from you, and sing a love song to your existence.” When we feel grateful we’re alive, when we appreciate the life within us and the life around us, we’re singing a vibrational love song to our Creator and to all of Creation. And, the vibration of appreciation we’re beaming out in each moment multiplies as it comes back to us. “Oh I like that!” and more to like comes our way. “Isn’t that beautiful!” and more beauty is there for us to see.
When we improve our view of life through appreciation, when we fall in love with the beauty that is everywhere for us to see, including within us, we change the world we live in one “thank you” at a time. Author, Terry Tempest Williams, wrote: “Once upon a time there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk was to heal the world through joy. The birds still remember what we have forgotten.”
In this world of so many possibilities for appreciating and experiencing good, sometimes it seems that it’s our experience of temporarily not having the thing we’re used to having, that made our life seem easier, happier and more peaceful, that causes us to feel exponentially grateful when whatever it was that seemed lost to us appears physically again—grateful when our health appears again; grateful when our peace of mind appears again; grateful when whatever we believe makes our life more enjoyable comes back into our experience.
Mooji wrote, “Sometimes consciousness creates an obstacle in order to experience transcendence.” When we transcend, or rise above, an illness, confusion, disharmony, or anything that appears be an obstacle to our joy, moving through that obstacle causes deep gratitude straight from our heart. We know we’re up where we belong where nothing truly ever goes wrong, and it feels so good! Life is supposed to feel good. It’s natural for us to be happy, healthy, peaceful, and free. Our gratitude that we’re on the other side of whatever that obstacle was may make us wonder why it is we ever forget how good life is.
But if we forget, and we need to remind our self with an obstacle, something or someone will appear as a teaching moment with a gentle or not so gentle reminder. That’s when it’s important for us to remember that Life isn’t doing anything to us. It’s answering our call to remember. There’s nothing and no one, outside of our self, trying to teach us a lesson. We call to us every experience that comes into our life, including the obstacles, because we’re following the innate spiritual urge within us to expand and extend our true Self.
It’s been said by many, including Marcus Aurelius over 2,000 years ago, that the obstacle is the way. He said, “What stands in the way becomes the way.” As spiritual beings we want to discover more and more ways to feel the Divine Energy that lives in us, and to remember that It’s there for us to access anytime, anywhere. When we transcend an obstacle, we become more aware than ever before that we one with the Divine Creative Energy of Love that created us. We’re more conscious that It’s there within us, around us, and always for us.
We are the Creation of God, individually and collectively. Yet, we are also the creator, and what we’re creating is more of our Self. In The Way of Knowing we read, “Because you live in perfect communion, and you are like a grand field of energy in which all webs of relationship are reverberating constantly, you actually have access to the complete entirety of creation.”
As we know, an “all access pass” to an event allows us to go anywhere we want to go—backstage, behind the scenes, even the VIP room! We’re not limited to where we can be if we want to be there and what we can see if we want to see it. In other words, an all access pass gives us experiential freedom to fully enjoy an event we’re attending!
The most important event we’ll ever attend is the one we’re attending now, the event we call our Earth life. As spiritual beings we’ve been given an all access pass so that we can consciously be anywhere we choose to be and see whatever we choose to see. It’s an all access pass that gives us experiential freedom to fully enjoy our life while we’re here!
We’re perfectly dressed for this Earth event because we’re wearing human garments. But beneath our body-clothes, we’re still the spiritual beings we’ve always been and will always be. And, we have access to the complete entirety of creation because we’re one with It. We’re not limited to just a physical view. We have access to the Deep Within—the Silence behind the noise, the Peace behind the chaos, the Love beneath the conflict.
Even though we may look only human, we’re a powerfully creative spiritual-vibrational being, a grand field of energy reverberating constantly with all that exists. When we reverberate, echo or resound vibrations of gratitude and appreciation, the vibration we’re sending out goes everywhere in the Universe. Our love song to Existence touches every realm of Creation and everything that exists.
On the other hand, when we sound off with anger, frustration and fear in any moment, those vibrations only go where they have access to go, which is not everywhere Life is, but only where such limiting vibrations already exist. And, that’s where we are in the moment we’re sounding off, and in that vibrational space there’s plenty of unwanted to attract. Unless we decide to transcend our negative emissions, we’ll experience more to feel negative about!
To stay in a bad mood when as a spiritual being we have an all access pass to every good feeling, is like locking our self in the bathroom stall at an event and missing everything we came to see and experience. The good news is that just because we’re dressed in Earth clothes, we’ve never lost Spiritual Identity or our all access pass, so we can never be stuck for long anywhere that doesn’t feel good (unless we choose to be).
The 15 Century Indian poet, mystic and saint, Kabir Das, wrote “Wherever you are is the entry point.” If we’ve locked our self in a metaphorical bathroom stall, even with that limited view that’s our entry point. It’s in the present moment that we can start to raise our vibration with appreciation that we’re alive and free to rise until we transcend feelings of limitation, unworthiness and fear.
We are a grand field of Energy in which the presence of whatever we want right now is reverberating with a vibration that matches our own. When we quiet our mind we discover there is powerful Spiritual Energy between a desire that’s come to our mind and that desire coming into physical manifestation in our life; a Sacred Gap between wanting and manifesting. Right there is the vibrational Reality and energetic Presence of the One that is All There Is fulfilling all we need with Its Self. We have access to that Self because It is who we truly are. We’ve been created by One Creator that is All That Is in every realm, including this Earth realm.
We read in The Way of Knowing, “You are intimately connected with that very Source from which all things have sprung forth. Because this is the truth, because it is the Truth of your being, this means that for any situation that requires a decision, you have within yourself access to perfect knowledge. As a body and as a mind abiding in space and time on a tiny planet, you are Reality’s decision to manifest Itself in form, for no other reason than to extend Its own nature.”
The joy of having anything manifest in our physical life isn’t about the physical thing we see. It’s about the realization that we have access to the Pure Positive Energy that creates worlds upon worlds, and creates in our world through our decisions. It’s the ecstasy of knowing that whatever comes to us in physical form has originated in the Unlimited Formless Reality of Spirit, in which we’ve been given an all access pass and out of which is created everything we become conscious of and decide upon. We have access to the complete entirety of Creation, the Holiness above, beneath, around, and within all that exists. All that’s required to use that Divine Pass is to show our ID as a spiritual being.
Abraham-Hicks tells us, “If all you did was just looked for things to appreciate, you would live a joyously spectacular life.” There is power in appreciation because it multiplies the good we’re aware of in each moment. There is power in the energy of gratitude because it improves our mind’s view of life as it’s created to be.
Our feeling and expressing appreciation and gratitude aligns us with our true Nature because it is the high, holy vibration of Love loving all that exists. We’ve been created by Love to love all that exists, beginning with our self and our life.
A day without appreciation and gratitude is a day in which our heart doesn’t shine. And, when our heart doesn’t shine we’re unable to see the good around us and within us. What better month for us to focus on the power of appreciation and gratitude than a month that includes a whole day set aside to encourage us to feel thankful. Though it won’t be officially Thanksgiving Day until the 23rd of this month, if we listen with a quiet mind and open heart, we can hear Thanksgiving calling to us right now, today, to begin giving thanks for the life within us and around us.
It’s not the things in life, but our ability to view life through thankful eyes that makes anything meaningful to us in the world. Thankful eyes enrich our experience of who we are and what we have in each moment. Eckhart Tolle wrote, “That feeling and the state of appreciation opens the door to receive more good in your life.”
We can start cultivating a more consistent attitude of gratitude right now just by feeling grateful we woke up this morning. We can piggy-back on that feeling by recognizing that this new day we’ve awakened to holds new possibilities for us to receive more good in our life—more energy and vitality in our body, more love and laughter with others, and more clarity in our decision making.
Today doesn’t depend on anything we thought about yesterday, unless we let it by thinking about the same things again today. If our thoughts yesterday made our vibrational output feel low, so that we felt unenthusiastic about our life, we’re free to let them go. They can’t follow us anywhere. We’ve got to carry them along with us if they are to join us today.
Yet, if certain thoughts yesterday caused us to feel uplifted and happy to be alive, the good feeling those thoughts caused will easily flow into today because that uplifted, happy to be alive feeling is powered by the Power that creates worlds and will not leave our awareness without effort on our part.
If we’re grateful for everything right now, both the obvious blessings as well as those that hangout as blessings in disguise that we’re sure someday we’ll recognize, we’ll discover that through the Law of Attraction more and more good comes to us, often from unexpected places—unexpected solutions and resolutions, unexpected happy encounters with friendly, helpful people, unexpected income, and unexpected opportunities to express our self more joyously in whatever we’re doing, even if what we’re doing seems like the same thing we’ve always done.
When we talk on Sundays about our experiencing a lack of something wanted or the appearance of something unwanted in our life, it’s not to suggest that anything has gone wrong with us or the Law of Attraction. We’re all doing just fine. We’re never lacking anything good spiritually.
But if we’re not focusing on thoughts within us, and things around us, that cause us to feel good, we’re not in a place in our mind and awareness where we’re able to perceive and experience our good in the world even though it follows us everywhere we go. Life is Good. It’s as simple as that. But if we’re not looking for It, we won’t see it even though It’s there.
In The Way of the Heart we read, “I have said to you many times that the world you see is nothing more than the effect of the thoughts you have held within the mind.” Everyone of us is unlimited in our ability to create a joyously spectacular life because we’ve been created from an overflow of our Creator’s unceasing Love and Joy that continues to Source us with unlimited possibilities for good thoughts and feelings with which to create.
The 23rd Psalm begins, “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.” We ask for it and we’ve got it! We don’t have to spend anytime at all wanting for anything. A Course in Miracles tells us that God’s Will is for us to have everything.
But we’ve got to be willing to put in the work, and that work is to feel happy and grateful we’re alive. That’s it! That feeling opens the door to our experiencing more and more good in our life. Imagine an ad that read, “Wanted: Someone who is willing to feel happy, grateful and appreciative. The pay is as much as you are willing to accept.”
Every good thing we could ever ask for is already present within us and around us, answered before we ask, given before we need, fulfilled before we want. All we need to do is feel the answer FIRST within us where it has been answered immediately with an unconditional “Yes,” and then remain happy that it has.
It’s that uplifting feeling of realizing health, happiness and abundant good are already ours that clears the way for them to appear physically. If allow our self to feel the joy and exhilaration of manifestation in gestation, i.e., to feel within us the uplifting Presence of what we want to experience in physical form even, and know it’s there before we see it around us, nothing could keep us from experiencing answered prayer everywhere in visible form—whether it’s healing of the body, more harmony in our relationships, positive change in our finances, or anything else we can imagine for our life.
If we’re not feeling fulfilled right now, it isn’t because the Source of our Creation doesn’t know our heart’s desire every moment. If we’re not seeing the good within us and around us wherever we are, it isn’t because it isn’t there to see. It’s just that we haven’t turned our focus away from the problem that caused us to pray, or ask for something better, in the first place. As the saying goes “The problem and the solution don’t appear in the same vibration.”
Nothing good can be missing vibrationally anywhere when Love’s answer to every prayer is already there. It’s our vibrational outputting that is vibrationally off-putting, which is to say, it’s the vibration we’re emitting caused by our attention to unwanted things in our self or another, and our focus on the absence of something wanted, that is repelling our good and keeping it out of our sight. Every moment is infused with the energy we give it, high or low, and we experience only what we are giving to the moment.
Abraham-Hicks tells us, “ We’ve got one question for you: How do you feel about where you are right now? Because that’s what the Universe is responding to. How you FEEL right NOW is the only thing on your resume that matters to the Universe.” It’s not even how we felt this morning, but how we’re feeling right now that is attracting or repelling our good. We don’t necessarily need to focus on the answer to a specific prayer to raise our vibration. Our feelings of appreciation and gratitude in the moment for anything will get us there, right in same vibrational vicinity of every answered prayer.
How often do we notice, or value, what we’re putting out vibrationally in the moment we’re in? It’s an essential awareness for us to maintain so that we can change our focus if needed to something, anything, that causes us to feel happy, grateful and appreciative right where we are, since how we feel in the Present Moment is the only thing that matters to the Universe and what It is responding to.
The output we emit with feelings of anger and frustration, and with thoughts of fear and vulnerability, are off-putting to feelings of peace and joy, and to the manifestations of good available to our perception within a higher vibrational view. We’ve got to be willing to put in the work, which is to feel happy, grateful and appreciative in general, and to love that we are and where we are in moments of our life. The pay for such work is unlimited!
I want to conclude this conversation on the power of gratitude with poem by Mary Oliver. She writes beautifully about simple, ordinary things that become extraordinary things through her thankful eyes. In her poem “Messenger” she writes:
My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird — equal seekers of sweetness. Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.
Are my boots old? Is my coat torn? Am I no longer young and still not half-perfect? Let me keep my mind on what matters, which is my work,
which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture. Which is mostly rejoicing, since all ingredients are here,
which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart and these body-clothes, a mouth with which to give shouts of joy to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is that we live forever.
If we have been wondering how to focus on positive aspects in a situation that occurs that we can’t change or that we didn’t want to change, the change back to standard time gives us an excellent opportunity to practice positive focus. In this world there are always two ways to look at anything, i.e., the upside or the downside. It’s likely that not too many of us want to be suddenly plunged into darkness at 5pm when just the day before it wasn’t getting dark until at least 6pm. We can choose to feel bummed about that and focus on the loss of light at the end of day. Or we can focus on the sunrise and feel good that it will occur an hour earlier every morning, and for quite a while we’ll have more light to begin our day. Focus is as simple as that…unless we make it harder than that!
Whatever we decide to focus on in any situation, upside or downside, will either cause us to feel good or not so good as we do. Because the vibration of our focus causes us to feel the way we feel, we’ll either be emitting a good or not so good vibration wherever we are. And, we can rest assured that if we don’t like how we’re feeling wherever we are, we’re not going to like what we’re calling to us as experience. We read in A Course in Miracles, “Every decision you make is for Heaven or for hell and brings you the awareness of what you decided for.”
On Halloween both Heaven and hell are often represented in costumes that children and adults wear. Some dress up as heroes, princesses and angels, while others dress up as ghouls, goblins and devils. But either way it’s okay because no matter what the masks look like we know it’s all for fun, and that none of the masks are real no matter how real or scary they look!
Mystical theologist, Alan Watts, wrote: “Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.” We wouldn’t take life so seriously if we remembered who we and everyone else truly are behind the human masks we wear. This world wouldn’t bring us down if we weren’t so easily fooled by our own human disguise and those of others. In fact, our Earth life could be fun if we remembered that we came here to mix it up with each other; to play our parts in each others lives to see how well we can do as we interact with one another and choose who we want to be, and how we want to be, behind the human mask we wear that we’ve shaped and formed using the tools of our human experiences.
If we remembered that behind every human mask, no matter who’s wearing it or what it looks like, that it is Love saying, “No worries! It’s me!,” we would live fearlessly. We’d learn from each other the Holy lessons we came here to learn, and the worst we’d ever say about anyone would be “good mask!”
Alan Watts likens the masks we wear as a particular human that looks different and separate from other humans as our worldly disguises of separation, and our interactions with each other as a Divine game of hide and seek. It’s an easy game to play in this world of “this and that” because when we look at everyone around us, we believe that because we’re this way (the way we see our self) and not that way (the way we see someone else), that that way must be separate from us. It’s easy to believe we’re cut from a different cloth than others, when in reality we’re all cut from the same Spiritual Cloth, and we’re each using that Holy Cloth to create our costume.
The metaphor of hide and seek can help us to understand how we can all look, speak and act so differently, and still remain all the same spiritually—One Life, One Creator, and One Creation within which there is no separation. Alan Watts tells us in his metaphor of hide and seek that when God (Spirit, Love, Source Energy) plays “hide” and pretends that He’s you and me, He does it so well that it takes Him a long time to remember where and how He hid Himself. But that’s the whole fun of it, just what He wanted to do when He took on a form. He doesn’t want to find Himself (or Herself) too quickly for that would spoil the game. That’s why it’s so difficult for you and me to find out we’re God in disguise, Spirit, Love pretending not to be our True Self
He goes on to write, “You may ask why God sometimes hides in the form of horrible people, or pretends to be people who suffer great disease or pain. Remember, first, that He isn’t really doing this to anyone but Himself” as the very expression of Divine Creative Freedom.
We all know that in almost all the stories we enjoy, there has to be people who seem bad as well as people who seem good because the thrill of the tale is to find out how the good guys will get the better of the bad guys. Every day we get to make choices to be our best self (or not), to make our best choices (or not), and then to see how our choices get the better of every situation (or not).
It’s not always choices between obvious extremes of good and bad. It’s every choice we make in the moments of our life between human limitation, vulnerability, judgement, and separation, or spiritual power, freedom, love, and oneness. Our choices in each moment are influenced by who we believe we are behind our human mask—either a physical duplication of the image we see in the mirror, a self separate from all we see through the pinhole view of our human mask, or a spiritual being who is one with the Pure Positive Energy of Life and one with all Life, that allows us to see beyond human limitations of the world and fully enjoy the game of life.
There is no one, anywhere, who is more or less spiritual than anyone else. How our true spirituality is expressed (more or less) depends on awareness of It. Nisargadatta Majaraj wrote, “Awareness is ever there. It need not be realized. Open the shutter of the mind and it will be flooded with light.” When we enjoy the game of life, we’re the life of the party! We’re not afraid of the world around us because we know that every new thought, every loving thought, changes what we experience.
Alan Watts goes on to say: “When the game has gone on long enough, all of us will WAKE UP, stop pretending, and REMEMBER that we are all one single Self, the Presence of God who is all that there is and who lives forever and ever.” God (Spirit, Source Energy, Love) is all there is behind every mask no matter how unlike God that mask appears to be. How can we not all be Spiritual Beings right now when there is nothing else for us to be? We read in A Course in Miracles, “When God gave Himself to you in your creation, He established you as host of Him forever. He has not left you and you have not left Him.”
So let’s consider some questions that only we can answer for our self: Has the game in which we’re disguised as a powerless victim vulnerable to the bad things that happen in the world gone on long enough? Has the game in which the world appears to be peopled with separate good guys and bad guys, and as the good guys fight the bad guys we cheer them on…have those war games gone on long enough? Has the game in which we pretend that what we focus on in our mind and in the world doesn’t matter because it has no affect on what we see or what we call into our experiences gone on long enough?
Are we ready to wake up and remember that we are all powerful spiritual beings, and stop pretending we’re not the creators of our own experiences? In other words, are we ready to unmask our Divinity? In The Way of Transformation we read, “The call is being sent to you to arise and assume complete responsibility for all that you see, all that you think, and all that you choose. Rest assured, if you hear this call, it is because a deeper part of you has called it to you as a way by which you remember that these things are already contained within you.”
It’s all right there within us—all the Clarity, all the Peace, all the Love, and all the Joy we desire. If we’re ready to unmask our Divinity and assume responsibility for our experiences in this world, it’ll be a game changer!
Reverend Kim Yalda is Minister of Education at The Life Enrichment Center. She began her professional life as a public-school teacher and administrator for 16 years, in the desert of Southern California. She also taught for 20 years at Chapman University in the teacher credential program as well as supervising student teachers entering the field. Rev. Kim holds Masters degrees in School Administration and in Educational Technology.
Being a spiritual seeker for many years, she attended her first Science of Mind church in 1986 and immediately found a deep connection to this beautiful and powerful teaching.
Spirit led Rev. Kim to Monterey, California, in 2000, where she pursued her passion for the Healing Arts and formally studied and earned credentials as a Holistic Aromatherapist, Reiki Master Teacher, Ayurveda Practitioner, and Pre-Cognition/ Re-Education Facilitator. She also followed her calling to a deeper consciousness and attended Emerson Theological Institute, where she earned a Doctorate of Spiritual Studies, Practitioner License, Interfaith Ministerial license and Religious Science Ministerial license. She was ordained in 2010.
While in Monterey, Rev. Kim served for over ten years as Executive Director and Conference Coordinator for Affiliated New Thought Network, was Staff Minister at the Center for Spiritual Awakening in Pacific Grove (CSA), and created a thriving Integrative Healing Arts practice with amazing clients. Kim maintains her beloved connections there by making annual trips to serve her clients, teach Reiki and offer spirituality classes at CSA.
Kim Yalda is an experienced teacher and energy worker. She offers her holistic health services and classes world-wide online via Zoom, as well as in person in Michigan and California.
Being a life-long student of metaphysics, she is committed to her own spiritual journey through New Thought and ancient Eastern teachings, Ayurvedic Wisdom and Seva practices (being of service to others).
Rev. Kim offers a wide-range of holistic services at her healing studio in Flint Township. Her heart-filled approach and supportive nature bring unconditional love and clear understanding to those she serves while on their own journey of mental, emotional, physical and spiritual health and well-being.
Contact Rev. Kim for more information about her ministry, holistic services or classes: visit her website at https://aromaspirit.square.site/ or contact her via email AromaSpirit@comcast.net or via Kim Yalda – Healing Arts on FaceBook.
