I am living in a particularly rich and wondrous time of my life. I dwell in amazement as I see all the puzzle pieces of my life come together to form a picture that is truly beyond my wildest dreams. I arise each day aware of the profound blessing that it is to be alive and to be spiritually awake. To recognize that I am a part of a greater whole of humanity and that I am governed by the eternal whisperings of Divinity. It is not that some of my preferences are not challenged or that I am constantly getting my way. It is that my perspective has shifted in profound ways that leave me to recognize that everything is for good when I stay plugged into Source-God.
That is not the same as the old punish-reward paradigm that I was taught in the religion of my youth. Meritocracy is not authentic gratitude. “If you do right you will be blessed, and if you do wrong you will be punished.” While the Law of cause and effect is always operative, grace transcends our inadequacies and always delivers more good than we could ever put forward. Source-God is always containing everything that occurs, and gratitude is the magic key to unlocking the All-potential of God-Good that is ever available.
In makes no sense to the logical mind, yet as soon as you thank whatever may be occurring it begins to reveal illogical and unexpected blessings. Gratitude and thanksgiving is a lens in consciousness that reveal the greater possibility of any circumstance or appearance. No matter how dire the challenge, consciously saying thank you in advance of the solution creates a context which is miraculous and infallible. I know in my life it never fails. If I fall into the trap of worrying and cursing what I perceive to be a problem I block the flow of the potential good that is always seeking to come forth. I clamp down on infinite potential. When I awaken to what I am doing, and make the shift toward gratitude and blessing, the floodgates open. I always feel it before I see it. My energy system comes alive. I am in a real sense re-born.
While I have for many years kept a daily gratitude journal that lists what I am thankful for, I was gifted with a major perceptual shift a decade or so ago that truly changed my life. Rather than stopping at what I am grateful for, I choose to live in a state of gratitude that is beyond form, circumstance, or prize. I am living in a state of being grateful FROM. I am contextual Thanksgiving. I don’t need to have something to be grateful for. I am grateful for the sake of the experience of gratitude alone. I can truly feel at a sense-level the turn-around of a sarcastic phrase I used to hear in college; “thanks for nothing!” What used to sting now gives me internal zing! This quip used to point out that whatever had been said or shared had no value or worth to the resistant recipient. Being grateful from reveals that everything is of value and everything has worth. And so I am grateful for all that is, and I am grateful for nothing in particular. I am thankful because being thankful aligns me with the True nature of what I am.
So I am indeed living in a particularly rich and wondrous time of my life. The externals are good and very good. Yet it is the formless interior of my gratefulness that fills me with such joy. I can say to life “thanks for nothing,” and that to me is everything.
