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Today's
Meditation:
The power of gratitude is far-reaching. When we
feel thankfulness for the things and the people and the
situations in our lives, we're acknowledging that we are,
indeed, blessed, and that our blessings are very
special. Yes, there are things that do go wrong, and
things that aren't so positive in our lives, but those
things are bearable and survivable as long as we stay
focused on the gratitude we feel for the many other things
that are positive in our lives.
Many, many things have gone wrong in my life. I say
that simply as a fact-- I've been through some awful times,
many through no fault of my own, and many as a result of
poor decisions that I've made and poor approaches that
I've taken. But through it all, there have always
been many positive aspects of my life-- family, friends,
work, possessions, living situations, books to read,
etc. And much of the time (though definitely not
always), I've been able to stay thankful for those
positive things in spite of the negative ones, and that
has been one of the saving graces in my life.
When we are thankful for what's in our lives, as Alan
says, we are keeping a door open to allow for more of the
positive things to come. Our gratitude and our
appreciation set us up to receive those positive things,
and when we are ready to receive, then things finally can
come to us. If we're not ready to receive something,
there's no way that it will reach us.
This is one of the most fundamental realities of our
lives, one that's been taught to us for centuries by
religious leaders, writers, teachers, friends and
family. And once we do start to make active
gratitude an important part of our lives, we'll find that
we've opened the door to much, much more for which we can
be grateful.
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