There is never a moment of our lives, no matter how seemingly impossible the circumstance, wherein we can not find something to feel gratitude for. We can start where we are standing. Are we standing on a lawn someone else planted? Are we standing on a floor that someone else laid down or poured? We can say a silent "thank you" to them. Probably most of the food we eat was grown by someone else. (Thank you.) The clothes on our backs were probably made by someone else. (Thank you.) Or, for those folks that knit or sew, someone else sheared the sheep or harvested the cotton that created the fibers for the thread or the yarn. (Thank you, thank you, thank you.)
There are so many more reasons to feel gratitude on a deeper level. How many of us ever reflect on the miracle of being alive in a human body? Wow! Really, just sit and think about it for a moment. All of those cells are working away in our physical vehicles so that we can have this amazing experience and we are not even conscious that they are busy living and dying to keep the body going. The heart is beating, the lungs are breathing, on and on without our really paying much attention. But what if we did? What if we spent some time every day feeling grateful for the experience of living in a human body?
And what about the spirit living in the body? What if we were kind to ourselves and forgave ourselves for every perceived mis-step or imperfection? What would that be like? I am thinking that probably we would be feeling profound joy.
And if we all recognized that every single person is having their own human experience, maybe we could find it in our hearts not to judge them. And in letting them be who they are we can do the same for ourselves. Just being. Present. Now.
Shanti,
S.