Unconditional Gratitude

Forgiveness, Gratitude 0

There may be a desire to keep another locked in a web of blame and guilt.  Unconditional gratitude given in these situations may at first feel as if we are letting people who we dislike “off the hook.”  I can assure you from my own experience that it is ourselves we are letting off the hook.  Gratitude, like its sister, forgiveness, frees the giver first of all.  Gratitude brings freedom to our self-imposed prison of hatred and revenge.  Perceived past wrongs are our prison bars.  Unconditional gratitude melts these bars away.  Hatred not only locks us in a tiny cell of self-pity, it keeps out those who are seeking to bring love into our life.  (Hatred includes everything from rage to a seemingly innocent desire to avoid someone.)  Our past, released with gratitude, frees our present to be as it could be.

Finally, the most marvelous gift that unconditional gratitude gives us is clarity and vision.  Giving unconditional gratitude, I begin to see that everything is here to bless me.  I really cannot explain how this happens.  It just does.  It makes no sense in terms of our worldly thought processes.  Only the actual act, in which you give gratitude unconditionally, brings the fantastic results of seeing clearly.  As I keep extending my gratitude to everyone in my past and my present, I start to see that all that surrounds me is actually in harmony.  I begin to see that what I judged as harmful and unfair was really a misinterpretation, a faulty judgment based on my perception, which is very limited in its scope.

— Lee Coit, in Gratitude: A Way of Life, by Louise L. Hay and Friends, p. 40-42

Directed Energy

Gratitude, Inspiration, Life, Trust 0

Living in confident expectation means using your energy most efficiently; it’s the way to live life by design rather than by default.  Direct your energy!  Remember, it doesn’t matter how much you want something.  Wanting is self-perpetuating — if that’s where your energy is focused, you’ll just get more wanting.

— Victoria Castle, The Trance of Scarcity, p. 121

A Mental Shift

Gratitude, Life, Peace 0

Gratitude is indeed like a gearshift that can move our mental mechanism from obsession to peacefulness, from stuckness to creativity, from fear to love.  The ability to relax and be mindfully present in the moment comes naturally when we are grateful.  One of the most delightful aspects of my Jewish heritage is the saying of Brachot, blessings or prayers of thanksgiving throughout the day.  These are praises of God for creating a world of infinite wonder and possibility.  There is a blessing upon seeing a star or a rainbow.  There is a blessing for the gifts of food, wine, and water.  There is even a blessing upon going to the bathroom for internal organs that function so well!

Joan Z. Borysenko, PhD, Gratitude: A Way of Life, by Louise L. Hay and Friends, p. 11

Bring an Umbrella

Gratitude, Growth, Life 0

This is where most people get stuck.  To get what they want, they try wanting harder.  They yearn more deeply, try harder to become worthy.  They build the case about why they should have what they want, but this very attitude requires holding the desire as other (out of reach).  It’s a strange paradox that when you want a thing, you affirm that your life is wanting.  You affirm the Trance of Scarcity and lack….

We need to recognize the formula that does work.  That formula is not desire but confident expectation.  It’s an example of energy matching energy, impersonal but reliable.  When you pray for rain, bring an umbrella.

— Victoria Castle, The Trance of Scarcity, p. 111 & 117

Sharing from Fullness

Connection, Gratitude 0

When we are full, sharing comes naturally.  Generous souls know they cannot be diminished by Giving — the more they share, the fuller they feel.  What they have, they want others to have.  Generosity recognizes our interconnectedness, our mutuality, our oneness.

— Victoria Castle, The Trance of Scarcity, p. 98

Wow.

Gratitude, Growth, Joy, Life 0

Now there’s at least two ways I can look at all of this.  I can say look at everything I’ve had to go through.  Or I can stand back and say wow.  Look at everything I got to experience, feel, and see.  And as much as I’ve resisted and struggled each step of the way, maybe that’s why I am here: to go through all of this and see from my point of view exactly how all these things feel.

— Melody Beattie, Playing It By Heart, p. 247

Deepening the Pleasure

Gratitude, Joy, Life 0

Receiving means being available in the fullest sense of the word — allowing the precious moments of life to touch us deeply.  Receiving has nothing to do with being worthy, but it has everything to do with being Open….

If we receive fully, Gratitude follows naturally.  Gratitude is generative energy that acknowledges our connectedness.  Gratitude deepens the pleasure of Receiving and makes us eager to accept more and more good things into our lives.

— Victoria Castle, The Trance of Scarcity, p. 97

Rejoicing in Bills

Gratitude, Joy 0

Bills are really wonderful things.  It means that somebody has trusted me enough to give me their service or product, knowing that I have the ability to pay for it.  My bills are an affirmation of my ability to pay.

— Louise L. Hay, Meditations to Heal Your Life, p. 17

Grateful for the Lessons

Gratitude, Growth, Letting Go 0

We even want to be grateful for the lessons we have.  Don’t run from the lessons; they are little packages of treasure that have been given to us.  As we learn from them, our lives change for the better.  I now rejoice whenever I see another portion of the dark side of myself.  I know that it means that I am ready to let go of something that has been hindering my life.  I say, “Thank you for showing me this, so I can heal it and move on.”  So, whether the lesson is a “problem” that has cropped up, or an opportunity to see an old, negative pattern within us that it is time to let go of, rejoice!

— Louise L. Hay, Gratitude: A Way of Life, p. 4-5

The Stories of Our Lives

Gratitude, Healing, Joy, Life 0

However God may choose to evaluate our lives, whatever memory of our past we shall have in heaven, we know this:  It will only contribute to our joy.  We will read our story by the light of redemption and see how God has used both the good and the bad, the sorrow and the gladness for our welfare and his glory.  With the assurance of total forgiveness we will be free to know ourselves fully, walking again through the seasons of life to linger over the cherished moments and stand in awe at God’s grace for the moments we have tried so hard to forget.  Our gratitude and awe will swell into worship of a Lover so strong and kind as to make us fully his own.

— Brent Curtis & John Eldredge, The Sacred Romance, p. 190-191