Gratitiude

Dear Ones,

Last Sunday, our Centre initiated a Gratitude Campaign. For 30 days, we are choosing to be grateful instead of complaining!! Using Blesslets acquired from www.gratitudeinaction.com that read “Thank You God,” we are ready to experience more good, more joy and more Life!!

Here’s how it works: Remember the “Complaint-Free World” campaign we participated in a couple of years ago, in which Unity minister and author, Rev. Will Bowman, designed a purple bracelet to break ourselves of the habit of complaining? He suggested that every time we caught ourselves complaining, we change the bracelet to the other wrist.

This is the first part of our Gratitude Campaign. We’re taking it a step further. When we change the Blesslet to our other wrist, we change the complaint to an expression of gratitude. Here’s an example: I needed to buy gasoline. I came to my favourite gas station and noticed the price - $1.05 a litre!! I started to complain, realized what I was doing, changed my bracelet, and declared “Thank God I have a car to drive!” I immediately noticed the physiological changes in my body – from a clenching of my muscles at the beginning of irritation, to the releasing of my muscles and a much, more peaceful feeling.

Metaphysically we know that ‘where the attention goes, the energy flows.’ I would much rather be focusing my energy on what I’m grateful for, wouldn’t you?

Sai Baba of Shirdi said:

Before you speak, ask yourself:

Is it kind, is it necessary, is it true,
does it improve on the silence?

WOW – My Mother was always telling me as a child to think before I spoke. Now I can ask myself: “Does what I am about to say improve on the silence?” Certainly complaints wouldn’t. Gratitude would.

SPIRITUAL MIND TREATMENT

I am one with the Great Silence, the Divine Creative Power that is the Cause to all. It is within me and all things. It is an Energy that is acted upon my thoughts and feelings.

Knowing this, I now declare I live a life of gratefulness. I celebrate everything I have attracted into my experience and everything I have not. I am grateful for my body, this wonderous earthsuit that allows me to experience all there is to experience in this place in time. I am grateful for my emotions, that give richness and meaning to my experiences. I am grateful for my mind, that is working for me all the time. I give thanks for that One behind my body, mind and emotions, that is my Life and my Guiding Light.

I declare that Life is good, very good. Joyously I release this word to Law and see that it is my Truth. I am so grateful. And so it is.

Little Things

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.

My Word

The other day I was talking to another writer about “the word for the year.” It made me think about my word for 2008 …. It was Celebrate.

At the time I picked that word, I was celebrating. I was in a new relationship, our community was thriving and Life was good.

As I look back, Mr. Right turned out to be ‘not right for me’ (and me not right for him), beloved friends and a beloved pet died, I moved residences twice, finances got really tight, my back and arm were terribly painful for awhile, and so on.

I thought for a fleeting moment: “What was there to celebrate?” and then I realized that in picking my word for the year, I had given myself an interesting challenge: Is it possible to celebrate the hard times as well?

My answer is YES! It’s all about Being with what is, and blessing it. Letting my experience of the moment show me what I truly desire for the future.

Celebrating is about being grateful. I am grateful I could risk opening my heart and letting go of so much stuff to live “in love.” I’m grateful I had the courage to realize it wasn’t working and let go. I’m grateful for the time spent with those who’ve ‘walked the rainbow’ as the Hawaiians say. I’m grateful for the travel and deepening friendships. I’m grateful I was able to become more aware of what I really want to experience and what’s important to me. I’m grateful for the financial, physical, mental and emotional challenges, because they brought me back to my Self.

Yes, in the midst of tears and sorrow, just as in times of love and joy, one can celebrate Life. Life is what we are, what we have, and what we experience. And Life is always saying “You are my Beloved, in whom I am well pleased.”

Celebrate was a good word for 2008. Divine is my chosen word for 2009 …. I can only imagine the wonders it will bring! What’s your word?


SPIRITUAL MIND TREATMENT

With a grateful heart, I celebrate Life. God is Life – all-powerful, all-knowing, everywhere present Life. It surrounds me, supports me and fills me. My Life is God’s Life.

I choose to make this Life I am experiencing even better by acknowledging every aspect of it as an expression of The Divine. What ever I have experienced, be it judged positive or negative, it is all Good. I make it so.

I open my heart, my mind and my being to the enveloping Love of The Divine as I move forward along my Path. God and I are inseparable, living and breathing Oneness, Loving all. I declare Life is Good.

Gratefully I release these words, knowing they are my Truth. And so It is.

I’m still cruising in Thanksgiving mode and I love it!! Karen Drucker’s song “I am so blessed” keeps running through my head. For those of you who haven’t heard it, it’s a simple song:

I am so blessed, I am so blessed

I am so grateful for all that I have

I am so blessed, I am so blessed

I am so grateful, I am so blessed.

This morning I looked up “blessed” in the dictionary:

1. Consecrated – sacred, holy

2. worthy of adoration, reverence

3. divinely or supremely favoured

4. blissfully happy or contented

In Religious Science we say absolutely everything is God – there is nothing but God …. So yes, definition #1 & 2 are appropriate – we are sacred, holy beings, definitely worthy of adoration & reverence, most particularly from ourselves.

Definition #3 reminded me of Dr. Holmes definition of Grace in the glossary of the Science of Mind text: “Grace is the givingness of Spirit to Its Creation and is not a special law, but a specialized one. In other words, Grace is, but we need to recognize it. It is not something God imposed on us, but is the logical result of the correct acceptance of life and of a correct relationship to the Spirit.”

When we recognize and are in acceptance of the Truth of our being, it is easy to feel divinely favoured. Everything seems to fall into its perfect place, Treatments manifest easily, life is good. Which leads us right into definition #4.

Now there’s an interesting phenomena that happens to just about everyone almost as soon as we realize we are blissfully happy … we begin to worry about whether it will last! I’ve discovered when I start to worry, going back to feeling grateful does the trick. The Truth is, how I am feeling is a choice! Thich Naht Hanh wrote "At any moment, you have a choice, that either leads you closer to your spirit or further away from it."

What are you choosing today? OK, let’s sing – I am so blessed, I am so blessed …

SPIRITUAL MIND TREATMENT

There is That Within Me that is infinitely intelligent and unconditionally loving. It is my Higher Self, First Cause, God, the Force, Divine Mind … what ever I choose to call It. It is within me and around me, It is – and that is all there is.

Today as I allow myself to accept the Truth – I am a sacred, holy being, living in a sacred Universe. I appreciate everything about my life. I give thanks for my body, and the ability it gives me to live in this present time. I give thanks for the other bodies in my life, whether they be family, friends, strangers, or pets. They are all expressions of The Divine. I give thanks for my ability to share my Divine gifts and talents with my world. I give thanks for being richly supported by The Divine. I give thanks for Being.

As I continually live in a grateful consciousness, I feel the Blessings of the Universe even greater than I ever have before. It is good to live in these times, regardless of what the world tries to tell me. My life is God’s Life, and I recognize and accept that It is a good one!

Breathing deeply, I release these words into Law, feeling the blessings of them. And so It is.