The Gift of Gratitude
I never truly understood the gift of gratitude until I humbled my ego and opened my heart to the Love of God. Never appreciating all that I had been given and every wonder that surrounded me. It never seemed to be enough. How did I like it? More, more, more. Always more.
Whatever stuff I had was because of my hard work alone. Not because of other people and not because of God. This great American myth is both truth and fallacy. A story I was taught as a child. A story that became my Truth for too many years and a story that was costing me my soul.
Hard work, discipline and perseverance are noble and necessary attributes. Helping us to achieve our life’s goals. Giving us strength to work through life’s challenges. Preparing us for the indiscrimination of nature.
But there’s no “I” in team. There’s no “I” in you. We are all connected and affected by everyone and everything in the world. This includes the past and the present. Maybe even the future?
Your life story is a Love story. God understands and experiences everything in our lives. God is always part of our story; fulfillment and disappointment. This legendary American myth is only about known fortune. It’s never about unknown failure.
We’re taught and sold success stories, but not everyone achieves success. And it has nothing to do with character. Bad things do happen to bad people, but bad things also happen to good people. It just is.
Awoken from my spiritual slumber, I woke-up from my American dreaming. Choosing the Truth of God’s love. The one consistent and constant relationship in this world and in what is next. Knowing and believing this has brought me peace during times of fulfillment and disappointment.
Just like Old MacDonald’s farm, I see gifts of gratitude everywhere in my life. Here a gift, there a gift, everywhere a gift-gift. Gratitude everywhere because I am surrounded by Love.
People and pets who love me unconditionally. Smiles on the faces of strangers I greet with my own smile as I pass them by. The natural world full of amazing creatures and wondrous landscapes. Technicolor panoramas in perpetual motion. Vistas transforming with time and temperature.
Learning to live in the present because all I have is now. My past certain, my future unknown. I no longer chase fame or fortune because they will never bring me peace, but they will kill me.
Living in peace, I am filled with gratitude. For everything and everyone in my life. Celebrating my talents and their talents. Exuding gratitude because God’s love is eternal and unconditional. Living a life awakened and in awe of everything that surrounds me. Living a life of gratitude.