My friend Nancy sent me this note today:
“I work in the sewing room at Hilo Medical Center.... The other day one of the physical therapists came in and asked me to stitch something really fast on a couple of wrist splints.
My scissors fell of the table....as I reached down to pick them up she said " An absolutely brilliant tool.....scissors" and smiled.
It was an "aha" moment of sorts. After she left the room, I looked at my scissors and was grateful for them.
Who-da thought?”
Wednesday night our Centre community gathered to celebrate the Earth, and as we drummed and sang and prayed, it became all about gratitude. I read a quote from the Catholic writer Ernesto Cardenal from Abide in Love who observed: "Everything in nature has a trademark, God's trademark: the stripes on a shell and the stripes on a zebra; the grain of the wood and the veins of the dry leaf; the markings on the dragonfly's wings and the pattern of stars on a photographic plate; the panther's coat and the epidermal cells of the lily petal; the structure of atoms and galaxies. All bear God's fingerprints."
We began to acknowledge patterns: butterfly wings, spider webs, the glistening of snow in the moonlight, the rainbow effects of oil on cement, the ripples of a drop of water, the feathers on an eagles wing, the petal whirls of flowers, the threads in the carpet beneath us and the cellular structure of our bodies.
I noticed none of us shared “big” things … and the phrase ‘it’s the little things that count’ came to mind. And there are gazillions of little things making up the place you are sitting right now.
Stop reading and look around you. Let yourself have an open eyed gratitude meditation …
I am grateful for my chair, the table I am sitting at, pens, paper, my computer, the printer, my camera, the phone, and all the cords that help them work, my journal, my coffee cup, the table cloth, my warm fuzzy slippers and robe. Each one of these I can follow deeper, finding even more things to be grateful for – like the electricity in my home and the recycled pop bottles that are now the fleece robe I am wearing.
Our lives are made of little things…. And Gratitude – it’s the key to being happy.
Blessings, Rev. Angelica
SPIRITUAL MIND TREATMENT
Gratefully I acknowledge God in the details of my life. This reminds me God is absolutely everywhere. There isn’t a place where God is not.
My life is made of little things. I open my mind to see them. I open my heart to appreciate them. In my mind’s eye, I see a web of ‘little things’ connecting everything and everyone together. I am so grateful to be an essential part of this web of Life. I am grateful to be able to recognize my value in this web. As I recognize the little things, I am honuring their purpose. As I see all these little things as expressions of the Divine, I am honouring my purpose.
God is absolutely everywhere – and where ever God is, all is well. I know this is True, I claim it and I accept it, and this is good, very good.
I release these words with a full heart. And so it is.
