Gratitude

I have been pondering gratitude for years. I have watched people in my life be grateful for everything. I knew I wanted that; I had to have it. I am grateful to God/Source/Divine. When I think about God, my heart fills with gratefulness which brings me to tears for the love that is shared with me, Divine’s presence in my life, and all the ways I am taught.

Without God, I would be caught in the fear, pain and loneliness that so many live in. Oh, how I desire to help people feel the Love that God even for a split of a second. It changes your life forever. The gratitude I am talking about is in this physical world.

This morning I realized why I lack gratitude in this physical world. It can be summed up in one word: EGO. Yep! That is it: EGO. Good old Screaming Mimi. When I allow Mimi to run the show, I might see a beautiful sunny day, but Mimi might feel the temperature is a couple degrees too warm or too cold. I might receive a gift of, say, a sweater, and my ego might think a different color would have been nicer. 

How about a hot summer day? You looked at a lake and jumped in. Your spirit screamed for joy. The cool water on your body, the freedom of gravity. Wow how lovely! Well, it will only be lovely if the ego does not pipe in. Ego might say, “Well, the water is nice, but I hate how the bottom of the lake feels.” We really could put ourselves in misery.

When it comes to relationships, we can do the same thing. Why couldn’t my kids come on Christmas this year? Then, of course, the ego is going to want them to pay for that. How about the complaints the ego makes when you have to be around a special relationship that is negative—or for that fact, even positive! “I can’t believe I have to go see _______ again. All they are going to do is complain.” Ego doesn’t even realize it is the one doing the complaining.

Or a loved one comes over to see you just because, and the ego thinks, “Well, they didn’t even have anything to say about how I lost some weight.” Nothing will be enough, at least not if you listen to that voice. That is what I was not understanding about gratitude. In order for it to be real, it has to come from the connection with the higher self. That is where the peace beyond understanding is felt, and with that peace comes gratitude.

Realizing we are all one with source/God will open up the door to gratefulness. Looking at you, I know you are just like me, an extension of Love in form. How beautiful, how simple. That is all I need to see, God everywhere and in everything. When I am with a negative, special relationship, gratitude can ooze out if I would just put on another pair of glasses and see it differently. It is that relationship that can help me see what is in me, what I need to change, where I am still projecting. Be grateful for every lesson no matter what your ego has to say about it. Each lesson is a chance to bring you home.

The love that God shares with me is not just for me. It is for me to share with everyone and everything. It is from this place that I will be able to express gratitude sincerely. We are all in this together, not as separate but as one.

I would like to end with the prayer that is in lesson 286 in The Course of Miracles. “Father, how still I am today. How quietly do all things fall in place. This is the day that has been chosen as the time in which I come to understand the lesson that there is no need that I do anything. In you is every choice already made. In you has every conflict been resolved. In you is everything I hope to find already given me. Your peace is mine. My heart is quiet and my mind at rest. Your love is heaven, and your love is mine.”

I would like to change the last sentence to Your love is heaven, and your love is mine and everyone’s and everything’s. This is the kind of gratitude I want to bring into my daily life. I am so grateful to be able to spend time with all of you. Thank you.