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Today I have an assignment for you. Today I wish for you to build your life upon a foundation of gratitude. I wish for you to awaken each morning in the coming week and let your very first thought be about gratitude.
I wish for you to be grateful for each person who is in your life. Be grateful for each opportunity you have to grow and learn. Be grateful for just being alive.
Yes, and this latter is the most important of all. Just taking a deep breath should fill you with gratitude. You are alive. You have this moment, this moment which is unlike any other that has ever come before and will ever come again.
You are unique in all of the universe and you are living in this unique moment. So fill yourself with a deep abiding gratitude for having this experience. Set aside your regrets for what you have done or left undone in the past. It does not matter. Set aside your fears and worries over what is coming in the future. It will come as it will come, and no amount of fear or worry will make it better.
Clear yourself of all of that and come deeply into now. Feel this moment flowing through you. Tick, tock, tick, tock. This moment flows through you and with each tick of the clock, that moment is passed and will never exist again, exactly like this. How precious it is. How precious is each and every tick of that clock, as it takes you through this great adventure of a life.
Your life is living out its time and someday it will be over. Someday, this precious heart of yours will stop beating and this adventure will be done. Yes, you will continue to live as a soul and you will have other adventures, but none exactly like this one. Everything in this life is transient, everything is passing in and out and through. You are one with it all and you are vibrantly alive, changing in each moment, breathing and glowing with youness, becoming who you are in the next moment as each moment leaves you. You are changing and evolving and so is everything around you.
Nothing stays the same. Everything evolves and changes. Everything is vibrantly alive and evolving, even when it does not seem so. Still, it is true.
And so, capture this time, capture it deep within you in a state of deep gratitude. Be glad to be alive. Be glad to know the people you know, to have the opportunities you have, to be the center of whatever life you have built for yourself.
And know that this constant state of change and evolution represents opportunity. If everything is changing every moment, then you can help it all to change and flow in the direction you wish through your thoughts and actions, focusing them and challenging the world to move in the direction you wish. This is within your power.
And if you begin with a state of gratitude, you will put yourself in the right frame of mind to make the right sort of changes happen around you. Begin with loving everyone in your life, with acting toward them with love, with being grateful for their presence, and your relationships will begin to shift and evolve in a wonderful way.
And so, this week, this is your challenge, your assignment. Awaken in gratitude. Before you even get out of bed, just lie there for a moment breathing deeply and filling yourself with gratitude for everything in your life. Everything. And most of all, for just being you, exactly as you are. Embrace your own presence and self as you are, right now. Love yourself for being you. Love yourself for being you exactly as you are. Feel how nice it is to be lying in bed, all warm and cozy, for having this physical body which enables you to have this adventure. Be grateful for feeling, even for the pain which you sometimes feel, for it is a part of life as well. Be grateful for being alive and having that heart of yours beat with love and longing. Be glad.
And then, as you move through your day, show your gratitude. Take the time to tell people that you care. Take the time to write that note you have been thinking of, to express your gratitude to everyone around you. Look for opportunities to thank people, to compliment them, to acknowledge that they are in your life and contributing to it.
Look for opportunities to be nice to the people who help serve you, in the grocery store, the dry cleaners. Everyone who crosses your path should be blessed with your love and gratitude. Feel your connection to them. Feel it and show it, demonstrate it. Be conscious all week of what else you might do to demonstrate your gratitude to those around you.
And as for your family, bless them deeply in your heart. Show them that you appreciate their steadfast loyalty, the fact that they are there for you. Demonstrate it in everything you do and say.
Also spend a little time in nature, in a park or even just gazing out the window. Notice the beauty of the world. Notice the birds, the clouds, the beauty of a simple leaf or flower. Notice the benevolent beauty of nature and say thank you in your heart.
Do this consciously throughout the week and then notice how wonderful it makes you feel. How peaceful and loving it is. See what a wonderful foundation it is for a life well-lived. Experience what it is like to truly be glad for the great and wonderful things and people in your life.
And then, remember this feeling. And as the weeks go by, if you find yourself again dwelling in a world of worry or criticism, remember what it was like in this week of gratitude and remind yourself to fill yourself with this good grace continuously, like a drink of water to a thirsty heart. |
