Being thankful when you are given a gift, or a friend or stranger helps you, is what we are taught since childhood, and of course is the right thing to do, but there is an arc to gratitude, just there is an arc to prayer, an arc to Giving, an arc to the Law of Circulation, and to many other things.
And the arc of Gratitude goes like this:
- First, you are grateful for nothing,
- Then you become grateful for some things;
- Then, you become grateful for everything;
- Then, you come full circle and are again grateful for no-thing!
Which means that you live in a constant state of gratitude, for nothing in particular. It’s just a way of experiencing life, appreciating every facet of it, even the facets that maybe you don’t like, simply because they are a part of life, and your soul wants to experience all of it.
To your soul, there are no highs and no lows, everything that is, just is! if you apply the soul’s perspective to what your personality considers a low, you will see it’s just a teaching experience so you gain a greater understanding of how life really works.
And what your personality sees as a high, a beautiful experience, is just a reflection from the Universe acknowledging and celebrating the learning that you have embodied from your previous teaching experiences. Source energy, has a deep appreciation and gratitude for every life experience you are having because it sees the bigger picture, it sees the ultimate outcome that will be yours.
When we align with the vision that Source has for our life, we can move from just liking certain things and being grateful for them to a deep sense of gratitude for just being alive on the planet, regardless of how many things come into our experience we would rather not have.
We have already won the Cosmic lottery ticket by just becoming a human being! Having experiences was Spirit’s greatest wish. And we were granted it, we are here with the mission of having experiences and bringing to this world the qualities of Spirit that we are able to feel and embody. The kindness, generosity, peace, joy, compassion, harmony, understanding… In any way that feels good and joyful to us.
Being grateful for simply being alive will bring that sense of Unity with the Divinity without which we would not be alive; and a sense of Unity with everything else that is alive. No separation! We are one Life, living itself in a myriad of different ways, and so long as our awareness is centered on our True Self which is Consciousness, knowing who is actually doing all the things we are doing in the outer world, our life flows easily and effortlessly.
But as soon as we put our physical appearance in the driver’s seat, things become effortful, difficult and problematic. In the words of Derek Rydall, “Plan your life as if you are living it, but live your life as if God is!”
