GRATITUDE MONTH: DAY 21: “God gave you a gift of 84,600 seconds today. Have you used one of them to say thank you?” ― William Arthur Ward
Sometimes it is best to just be grateful for my life. Period…no things, no conditions, just life. I am breathing, that is awesome. And I can do whatever I want…anything!
Now, we all have obligations, promises to keep, commitments to fulfill; but we can do ANYTHING we want. I can go anywhere, do anything. The only restrictions are what I believe about that.
So, we can get very creative with those 84,600 seconds if we like. Or we can believe all the stuff that comes from the screaming purple monkeys and destroy it all by hating what we are doing, even for one moment.
Whatever I do is a thankyou prayer or a condemnation of anger and resentment. If I am not grateful for the time that I sit with pain or fear or grief, then I have condemned myself to losing that amount of time from my life.
When I look back over the years (so far), I remember when something hurt (physical pain), when I was having a good moment of love, when I was frightened or hurting emotionally. I see these times as being blown way out of proportion to the gifts that inevitably came when healing occurred, whether it was physical or emotional healing, or I gathered the courage to move through my fear and gained enormous benefit from not just the act, but the gathering of the courage as well.
Even during rage, I have felt the loss of life slipping through my fingers, because I missed something at the periphery of my rage. This is hard to describe, but I hope you can get what I am talking about. Most of the time, what happened was that I saw myself as totally alive in that feeling, aware of self and others (or not); and wanting to hang on to that emotional state.
We know resentment is something we cannot hang on to. But I understand the need for the story. Truth be told, if I am living in a story, I have missed out a great deal on what is actually happening all around me.
Think about the miracles you have experienced in your life. The common factor in all miraculous events or moments is that you must, absolutely must, be completely present. If it is a big miracle moment, you know that what went before and what will come after will have no bearing on that moment. It feels full and right and perfect. There is no room for anything other than perfect love and awe and a deep sense of gratitude.
We can live like this for a great deal more of our lives than we do. We have the ability to walk away from the story and fully experience the pain, the love, the moments that are so few in this life. Why would we be willing to spend them in anything other than the knowledge and presence of that Power we seek or a miraculous moment?
I have felt like a miracle worker while driving a car, digging in my garden, finding seaglass on the beach, hugging an old friend or a baby (hugs are like that, big fan, you know!), watching a sunrise or sunset, think about it!
Almost everything we do in each day is a miracle. Breathing, heartbeats, walking, talking, all of it. Think about the things you are now dependent upon in your life, phones, cars, televisions, computers, E-readers, clothes, food, dishes, stoves, couch, etc. None of them were around a few years ago, some of them had not yet been invented…they are miracles! Pay attention to the miracles everywhere in your world; thank them and thank the Universe for their presence and their service to you and your life.
I get too excited when I am writing about this some days, so it is time to end. The intention here is to wake up our sleeping and complacent minds and to open our hearts to the wonders of life…RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW…because it is already past…and it was miraculous!
Dolphin Hug 