This Month of Gratitude

This morning, as is often the case, among my meditations, there arose the subject of Gratitude. As Thanksgiving approaches, as the leaves turn and fall, as the cold and dark comes near, once more I find I am so grateful. I am grateful to be so blessed in this life, in this living, that I am able to share my good fortune, able to be nourished, and from that genuine abundance, I am able to share those blessings and nourish others. I’m not certain I should ask for more. It’s a way of life, I think. 

 

Living one’s life in gratitude brings about a feeling of harvest, abundance, richness ,and blessings received, and blessings bestowed. I have learned to look to the ordinary joys, the simple pleasures and find therein the best in all things. The beauty that surrounds us every day, the turning of the leaves to gold and red, the brightness of the moon and the chips of stars shining silver in the night, these things happen every day and every night. They are always there. They offer to us the best of Beauty itself. We can echo that, reflect that, sing the song back into the world, releasing it into the silence from whence it came. This is no different than the falling of leaves that then blanket the ground, reducing themselves into nourishment for the soil from which they came, and eventually, in the returning miracle we know as Spring, the leaves come again. This is the blessing of the leaves. This is the lesson of the leaves. Though the lesson is often difficult, I learn over and over to take what comes and find the best in it; and as an artist, I know for sure that even with slender means, the sentiments of the heart can be expressed. In fact, don’t you find that hard times honor us by their presence? They do this, it seems to me, by encouraging us to draw upon our strengths and the wealth of family and friends. What a lesson this is: learning to be grateful for obstacles, knowing their secret: They are, in fact, Gateways!

 

This grateful way of living provides the surprise of endless enrichment. This grateful way of living keeps you on the Path, there in the Now, letting the endless miracles of life come to you as they do, as they will. These miracles are there for us all the time if we would but notice, if we would be mindful. Everything here on earth is a gift. The Mother has given us all we need. Let us then be grateful, and bring nourishment as we ourselves are nourished. I am endlessly grateful for all of you in my life, you, my family, my friends.