Meditation of Gratitude

There is a sudden freshening of the air.
I feel the coolness gently caress my shoulder
as I sit in deep meditation in this early hour,
listening to the sweet cacophony
of awakening birds.

As I arise the world around me stretches,
yawns, and lifts its voice in song,
in gratitude for a new day, a new sun,
a new moment, a new beginning,
a new opportunity to love.

Abundance Thinking - A Journal Entry

I meditate in the wee hours. I have done this for many years. It is very powerful to become consciously still during the quietest time of the early morning. Just before the birds begin their morning chant, I begin mine and it often takes me to a place of deep universal knowledge. I have journals filled with wisdom, guidance for my life. Last night was no exception.

April 5, 2009
4:30 a.m.

" I felt a shift last night. As I visited with a friend who I consider wealthy, abundant, I suddenly understood, recognized that I too am very abundant. I always knew that on some level, but this was a true, visceral understanding of how deeply abundant I am. I suddenly felt full and peaceful. Life is good, I thought. No, life is wonderful. I have so much to be grateful for; love of family and friends,deep love within my heart, deep love for a very special man, my home, my work. I felt immensely satisfied with my life, for all that it is and all that I am working towards.

This sudden realization caused me to pause. I noticed that I felt full, very full, satisfied that I am doing the rights things, making the right choices, living life fearlessly here and now. I felt abundant and within this abundance was a sense of peace, confidence, centeredness, openness and presence. "

I thought more about what is abundant about my life during my meditation. It was a recognition and simultaneous gratitude for all those present in my life, for love, both given and received, for health and well being, for the opportunities that arise, and so on. I easily filled two journal pages in recognition and gratitude of how full my life is and is becoming.

Abundance thinking is very important. Our thoughts create our reality. Knowing from our deepest place that we are abundant and then being grateful for this abundance helps us focus our thinking on all that is positive in our lives. It helps us put into perspective what is happening around us and helps to draw even more abundance to us.

I realized in this moment, this instant recognition and understanding of my own abundance, that gratitude is absolutely paramount, but it becomes even more powerful when we recognize first how abundant we are and then give gratitude for this abundance.

Know, truely know that you are abundant. Know that your life is meant to be abundant. It is the Divine way. Make your own list of all you recognize as abundant in your own life. Pray for continued abundance. Give thanks for all you have and all that is present in your life and then watch this abundance grow. It is like fertilizing a garden. the garden of your own life.

Change Your Focus

I just noticed that the last date I wrote a blog entry was January 20, 2009. It was a most significant day; a very moving day; a day of new inspiration; one of celebration. Since that time my focus and that of others has been diverted by the very real economic challenges that we are all facing in our personal lives, our places of employment, our communities, our state capitals, our nation, and the world. I have been moving through all of the challenges as fearlessly as I can, not allowing too much of what is going on around me to deplete my personal energy, divert me from tasks at hand. I need to be able deal with things that are happening as directly and positively as possible.


You see, I have been through very difficult times before and so have you. I know that it is not what happens to us, but how we negotiate the challenges that are most important. Years ago, I went through what I now call my "short-term insanity marriage." It was my "soap opera period", a time of upheaval and personal crises. It was a time of my life for which I am deeply grateful. I learned so much about myself and it was the defining catalyst for my spiritual grow and awakening. Since then I have learned to navigate life with a realistic optimism and to watch for the new possibilities that are always around us if we can focus and pay attention.


In that difficult period in the early '90s, here is something I did to start to refocus my energy and attention and it changed my life. I started noticing the positive things happening around me and to me. I noticed that the moment I gained the courage and strength to release negative people back to the Universe and to take responsibility for the ramifications of the choices I had made. I began to "awaken" and to notice all the positive in my life. I started to write down on a small desk calendar all of the lovely and unexpected things that began to happen during the day; like a reassuring phone call, or a gift of a single red rose from a friend who just wanted to say she loved me. All of a sudden my conciousness shifted from the negative to the positive, and while I had many business and financial issues to deal with, I kept noticing more and more of the positive around me and this made dealing with those at lot easier. I started keeping a gratitude journal and was amazed that every night as I wrote, the list kept growing longer. I also realized that every night as I fell asleep that I was focusing on all the postive that had happened during the day and my sleep state became more peaceful and my dreams more insightful.


I now realize that this is what I need to start doing again. This is what we all need to do - to shift our attention away from all the noise and distraction to the things that are going well in our lives. I can't say it too often. In difficult times it is even more important for all of us to count our blessings.


So please help me make a list of things for which we are all grateful by responding to this blog entry. And please end your own day by making your own list of only the good things. They are there all around us. I am grateful for:

• the gift of our lives,
• the sacred breath that animate us
• the people we love
• our health
• the roof over our heads
• the food that sustains us
• our collegues
• the sunshine
• the moonlight
• gorgous sunset or moonrise
• birds at the feeder
• a kind word received
• An opportunity to say something kind and supportive to someone else
• 
  

P.S. By all means, learn what you need to know. Read newspapers, view the news on line or on TV, but only focus on what you really need to know. Don't allow it to consume you. Don't watch the news before you go to sleep!!! Instead write in your gratitude journal!