GRATITUDE MONTH: DAY 14: “In normal life we hardly realize how much more we receive than we give, and life cannot be rich without such gratitude. It is so easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements compared with what we owe to the help of others.” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer
There are so many people who have given me enormous gifts. Even when I did not recognize them as gifts, the times in my life when I was being shown something I needed to know and the lessons from those experiences are treasures today.
That takes a lot of recovery and a lot of gratitude. The work we do in recovery, such as praying for someone with whom you are feeling angry or resentful; from Freedom from Bondage in the BB, is powerful when we can wish them well; but even more so when we can be grateful for them and their lessons and their gifts.
For me, the best practice is to pray for their wellbeing and then to praise them for a few minutes, listing all the qualities that are good and fine and seeing how I possess the qualities that are bugging me. This gives me a new perspective. When I do it for 2 weeks, as suggested, I find that I am happy when I next see this person and I see them in a whole new light.
Wow! That sounds amazing, doesn’t it? Yes, and it works. What I focus on grows. When I focus on the faults and bad habits or irritating things in another person, I am leaving out so many of their fine qualities. And it must be remembered by all of us that each person in our lives comes bearing a gift of the lesson we most need to receive. This is a sacred contract we made with the spirit of these people. When I get all up in arms about something, it shifts to me needing to see how I might embody those qualities in myself. Am I being intolerant? Am I doing what they do that is problematic at this moment? Do I operate from some form of fear or feel threatened by this person? If so, why?
This kind of inventory process keeps me from acting out on my resentments. I get to see how I have been wrong more often than I am willing to admit. Ugh!
And then I can be free and grateful for their lesson to me this day. And I release the idea that they are setting out to harm me…REALLY??? Why on Earth would anyone set out to do that anyway? I am so self-centered at times that I truly believe others are doing things to ruin my good day or get in the way of what I want. (Like you even know what that is!) Yikes!
So, I am grateful when I set the intention to pray for someone and to also praise them. We both benefit and I get to see that what is written in today’s quote is more true all the time. I think I have learned a lot, but it wasn’t without teachers and experiences that were not to my liking initially and then became lessons when I shifted my stupid perspective and embraced all the feelings and worked through my first perception, which is often skewed by my self-interest. Oh!
And, of course, I am grateful once more and again and ever so grateful for that!
Dolphin Hug 