Gratitude

I took a sweet walk with Amy's last post and was touched and impressed with her meandering through some of her girlfriend's blogs to reach this beautiful suggestion wrapped in the following exquisite words:

“A single word can be a powerful thing. It can be the ripple in the pond that changes everything. It can be sharp and biting or rich and soft and slow. Last year I began a tradition of chosing one word for myself each January - a word that I can focus on, mediate on, and reflect upon as I go about my daily life. Last year my word was something I wanted to bring into my life in a more tangible way. My word was Play… Can you identify a single word that sums up what you want for yourself in 2007?”

This challenge from friends four times removed speaks to me with a reassuring resonance, so I've chosen "to focus on, meditate on, and reflect upon" the word "Gratitude."

It's not that I don't already have gratitude in my heart as much as it's about REALLY getting gratitude into the very cells of my body. It's about every breath bearing the energy of gratitude. It's about the honor which gratitude gives to Heavenly Father, and the personal empowerment it brings to me. It's about the Universe which recognizes gratitude, and the effectiveness of prayers uttered in gratitude through the language of gratitude.

Once I attended a seminar and the teacher drew a horizontal line which he then proceeded to intersect with zig zag up and down lines that resemble pointy skinny mountains ...all up and down across the entire line. He said the line was our base line, our stable emotion, while the sharp up ward lines were the high's, the excitable, happy feelings, and the lows attached to each high represented the low's in our lives. As high as we allow ourselves to go with that which we perceive to be "good," we will experience an equally low "low," which will probably be perceived as bad, or negative.

I watched and listened and seriously pondered his message, then I thought of Kipling's poem "IF" and the wonderful line which reads, "If you can meet with triumph and disaster / and treat these two imposters just the same..." What did this poet know? Triumph and Disaster are imposters? At the top of the peaks above the line we would put Triumph, and at the bottom peaks below the line we would put Disaster, but they're both imposters. They are simply messengers.

Knowing what each extreme feels like, and not liking the lows at all, I laid siege in my mind and prayers to find the magic that would keep me from going too high so that I wouldn't turn around and fall so low. Joy in the good would still be there, but how could I temper it to keep a healthy balance below the line? After three days of earnest prayerful thought, I heard the word, "Gratitude," and I knew in that instant it was the answer; Gratitude in ALL things, the good and bad, the happy and sad, the success and the failure.

We never reach those pinnacles of achievement, excitement, joy or whatever that high emotion might be without the assistance and support of others. No one does it alone; there's always someone in the wings who deserves our gratitude. It's that gratitude in the journey that tempers the "Imposter" of Triumph, and its the gratitude infused into the dark valleys which give energy to the "Imposter" Disaster and lightens the sorrow.

I want all who read this to know that I am very grateful for many things, not the least of which is my earth walk and the lessons I've called forth and the constant unfolding of knowledge and deeper truths. I'm grateful for the sunshine, butterflies, a baby's smile, running water, paper clips, computers, electricity, garbage trucks, cameras, green plants, ink pens, kleenex, literature, refrigerators, washing machines, cars, angels, mirrors, hair dryers and curling irons. I'm grateful for my family and for my friends and the richness brought to me by others. The list becomes impossibly long, so I'm going to live gratitude and apply the principles I know to be true about effective praying. I'm going to be like the 172 year old man in the city of Eldorado in Voltaires Candide who said they never pray because they have everything they could ever want. All they do is thank God for what they have. It's in the thanking God for what we have (whether it has manifested or not) that generates the magic and brings to us that which we desire.

Years ago when I took Holly to see the movie, Hook starring Robin Williams, I was heavy in my heart with some burdens in my life. Completely absorbed in the movie, I was enjoying the scene where the lost boys were serving in great style the non-existent banquet. Peter/Robin was watching this and certainly wondering as these boys pretended to eat. Suddenly the insults began to be hurled back and forth and Peter takes his spoon full of imaginary food and he says, "Oh, yeah, well take that," whereupon the other boy's face was suddenly splattered with a colorful whipcreamy looking substance. When that happened one of the boys said something like, "Oh, Peter, you do believe." In that moment a spiritual whispering reached me and said, "Judy, all you have to do is believe and the banquet will be spread before you."

I offer this spiritual moment to say that it's the believing that we have already received which is what makes it happen. According to Wayne Dyers most people say, "I'll believe it when I see it," but the opposite is the real truth, "I'll see it when I believe it." The real power in prayer is the power of gratitude.... I'm grateful that our family will be safe today. I'm grateful that angels will be with us. I'm grateful that I will remember to be soft spoken and gentle and without judgment.....

Yes, I am going to let Gratitude be my word for 2007.