Gratitude

Have you ever noticed that when you feel gratitude, the kind of gratitude that comes from deep, deep within, it so often comes with a desire to hug the world?  It’s a feeling of expansiveness that makes you want to cry with a depth of love that you can feel and yet, can’t even begin to express.  When I’m in that place, I feel a deep sense of peace and joy, secure in the knowing that all is well with the world.  It’s delightful too, that when I’m in this place of gratitude, people in traffic appear more courteous, fellow shoppers more friendly,  my computer more co-operative and things that used to loom in the background of my mind as potential problems turn out to be lovely non-events.

It feels so amazingly wonderful to stay in this place of gratitude I’m amazed with myself that I don’t stay here longer and more often.  Especially when all it takes is a change in focus.  I suspect that everyone has something, that if they think about it for any length of time, makes them drop into their heart and want to cry out a huge “Thank You” to the world.  I can think of so many things that take me there.  Just sitting on my swing in the garden and watching the birds and chipmunks play around the tree with the sun dancing in the water of the fountain makes my heart sing.  Thinking about my two little granddaughters, recently adopted from China, long walks on a crisp winter evening with the snow glistening in the moonlight, snuggling up with a good book in front of a crackling fire, sharing moments of intimacy with a loving friend…

Actually, it doesn’t feel like a coincidence that just before sitting down at my computer to start writing this I should look up in time to see a huge hawk perched on a tree branch, just outside my window.  As a long-standing lover of wild life critters, this is an automatic call to both gratitude and joy.  This is the second time he has come to pay a visit; an event all the more delightful because I live on a postage stamp sized lot within the periphery of a bustling town -  not a place one would expect a magnificent creature of the wild to choose as a resting spot.

Isn’t it great that the more things we find to be grateful for, the more they seem to pop (or fly) into our lives?! I’m so happy and thankful too for our expansiveness … PS Don’t miss Jeffrey on our Final Thoughts page.

Pat Lutz
Managing Editor