GRATITUDE MONTH: DAY 7: “The greatest wisdom is in simplicity. Love, respect, tolerance, sharing, gratitude, forgiveness. It’s not complex or elaborate. The real knowledge is free. It’s encoded in your DNA. All you need is within you. Great teachers have said that from the beginning. Find your heart, and you will find your way.” ― Carlos Barrios, Mayan elder and Ajq’ij of the Eagle Clan
The inherent wisdom of our hearts is vast. We all come here with this journey around this marble written in the heart we carry. Our brains tell us we need to have this or that to be happy.
Not so. We are complete. When you study the ideas of what it takes to be happy and fulfilled and to reach what Maslow calls “self-actualization”, we pass through the levels where our basic physiological needs are met (food, shelter, clothing), through the need of safety, through the need for love and acceptance, through the level of esteem and we are self-actualized as human beings!
Nowhere does this say we need a newer car than our friends, a bigger house, more stuff than anyone, or to be at every event and to constantly run from one thing to another to achieve any of these levels.
So, we must need NONE of this to be at the highest pinnacle of human endeavor…self-actualization! Oh!
I love that! When we keep the things we need simple and basic, we can find that ALL our needs have been met, without excessive amounts of money, without gadgets, without technology, without anything outside of us, other than very basic shelter and protection from the elements and enough food to sustain life.
So be grateful for the food in each meal, be grateful to the sun for its warmth, be grateful to the night for the darkness to allow your sleep, be grateful to the roof over your head. Be grateful for your arms and legs that you may use them to productive ends, be grateful for your beating heart and your health, be grateful for fingers and toes…they are amazing appendages that can do SO many miraculous things. Be grateful for your five senses. The wealth of the Universe can be found in sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell.
Be grateful for the moments of life when you recognize love and belonging, a sense of fellowship and connection. I find that quite often with animals. There is nothing, for me, like the wagging of a dog’s tail to let me know I am loved. Or the feral cats I feed who are there to greet me in the morning, wanting to be fed, and trusting me just enough to let me feed them and to remain in my yard because it provides them a sanctuary.
If you are sheltered, fed, safe from harm, loved, accepted, and have a sense of your identity in this world, you have achieved great things! Most of us forget to be grateful for THAT. And God knows we will let others hear about it when we are not. There is NO GUARANTEE it will all be there for anyone after this moment, so embrace THIS moment and give thanks loudly and continuously, for that is all any of us get.
Let go of demands for more than others, share what you have, it is the true meaning of what gratitude looks like with feet. Walk through the world like a king or queen, because you are! Be the perfect picture of a grateful child of an amazing Universe…you are actualized and recognized and blessed beyond measure!
Dolphin Hug 