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Many of you will be spending Thanksgiving with family and friends you have known for years. Some of you will be with new acquaintances. All are Infinite Being expressed in human form.
For some of you on this Thanksgiving, there will be the absence of the form of one loved dearly. For some of you there will the presence of a new expression of Spirit at the table. Our forms come, grow, mature, and go. Formless to form and back home again. This is the flow of all creation.
What is changeless is your true nature, the Love that YOU are. That is always present, and accessible to experience and give when you are open to receive.
Rather than just a one-day-a-year ritual, I invite you to have Thanks Giving be a daily expression in your life.
Give thanks, and move into a state where Grace can presence itself in your life deeply and forever.
What you really want already lives within you. The Gift of Grace merely illuminates it.
Grace is not moved to appear through effort, struggle or by the ego's ravenous asking, pleading, desire and want for more. When you vibrate at the frequency of Lack, that is what manifests. No matter how many things and experiences you have, something will be missing.
Grace arises effortlessly when you experience Gratitude for the blessings of life you have received.
Dwell in Gratitude, and you will find yourself transported into a state of awe, humility and wonder for the gift of life itself.
Release the death grip of the mind's endless list of what should and shouldn't be in your life.
Embrace what is, and you will naturally give thanks, for the gifts of Life's miracles will unfold all around you.
When you embrace what is, you shift your attention away from two illusions -- a past that is no more, and a future that has not yet arrived. You become fully present to where life is actually unfolding --NOW. That is where YOU ARE. That is where LOVE IS.
When you give thanks for what is, you move out of your thoughts as your primary residence and you move into your Being. You give up focusing on the mind's addiction to the illusion of separateness. You give up the mind's world of stories, dramas, beliefs, and fears for your security and survival, and find yourself in the real world, in which you are aware of Love, Compassion and inner Wisdom as the foundation for all life.
When you live from your Being, the mind shifts from being your master to being the Heart's faithful servant. Then the mind functions to support the Being's manifestation in the world. That is how it was designed to BE.
When you live with thanks and gratitude, you become aware of the miracles all around you, and the gift that life itself is.
When you quiet the mind, the gifts you are given shine forth.
I invite you to do a simple, powerful exercise on Thanksgiving day. When you take a walk or climb a flight of stairs or just sit quietly before or after your Thanksgiving dinner, allow yourself to give thanks for the gifts of Grace in your life. Start with something obvious and simple, such as those I've listed below, and the rest will flow. Notice what you experience if you do this fully for only a few minutes.
A GUIDE TO WHAT YOU COULD BE THANKFUL FOR:
Give thanks for the gift of SIGHT. Be present to the gifts it has given you -- the openness of a child's face, the symphony of colors, hues, and tones at sunset, the shimmering of light on water on a moonlit night, the graceful curve of a neck, the purple radiance of flowers on a green hillside, the synchronicity of a flight of birds flying South in the cool of Autumn, a painting by Monet, the light in your lover's eyes.
Give thanks for the gift of HEARING. Of music, of the wind through the fall leaves, of the crunch of hard packed snow underfoot, of voices strange and familiar ---a baby's laughter, a child's first word, an intimate's whisper, a grandparent's last sigh.
Give thanks for the gifts of TOUCH and of SMELL. The texture and aroma of your Aunt's pumpkin pie, the smoothness of a child's skin, the scent and warmth of a loved one's embrace.
Give thanks for the gift to FEEL the whole range and palette of human emotions.
Give thanks for the gift of MOVEMENT -- the miracles of our bodies to move, to crawl, to walk, to run, to dance, to love.
Give thanks for the gift that each BREATH is as Spirit breathes through us, in and out.
Give thanks for the gift of YOUR UNIQUE EXPRESSION through art, dance, music, writing, science, sports, mothering, fathering, and love itself.
Give thanks for the gift of the FRIENDS, TEACHERS & GUIDES in your life who have touched you, moved you, and guided you.
Give thanks for the gift of your parents for giving you PHYSICAL LIFE.
Give thanks for the members of your FAMILY for what they provided for you in your Soul's journey in this life.
Give thanks for the gifts you have gotten from FAILURES, PAIN, mistakes, traumas, and crisis from which you have learned.
Give thanks for the gift of FORGIVENESS; the opportunity to discover your power to express unconditional love and be the source of your inner state of Being.
Give thanks for the gifts of LOVE and COMPASSION.
Give thanks for the ability to listen to your own INNER WISDOM.
Give thanks for the gift of recognizing the TRUTH of our ONENESS with ALL.
Give thanks to THAT which is the SOURCE of all you are thankful for.
I invite you, on this day, on all the days that follow, to live from THANKFULNESS and GRATITUDE.
I thank each of you for the gift you are in my life in whatever form or forms that has taken --- as family, friend, student, client, mentor, guru, acquaintance, or passerby. You are all my teachers. You have all given me the opportunity to relate, to create, to love, and to BE.
Thank you for BEING in my life.
With love, gratitude and appreciation,
-- Hal Isen
From Core Wisdom On-Line Number 69 - November 20, 2006
A Core Wisdom Quote 541-488-7687 |
