Celebrate Thanksgiving with Gratitude

". . . the pang of affection & gratitude is the Gift of God for good. I am thankful that I feel it; it draws the soul towards Eternal life & conjunction with Spirits of just men made perfect by love & gratitude, the two angels who stand at heaven's gate ever open, ever inviting guests to the marriage. O foolish Philosophy! Gratitude is Heaven itself; there could be no heaven without Gratitude. I feel it & I know it. I thank God & Man for it . . ." William Blake

The United States of America is today celebrating Thanksgiving as the one day of the year that we are encouraged to look inward at all the blessings in our lives, and give thanks for what we appreciate. I think that as global consciousness emerges, the awareness of gratitude as a powerful attitude of spirit, that contributes to emotional integrity and happiness in life, occurs more and more. Sacred space is created by complete honesty, appreciation and psychological safety. Gratitude plays an important part in our unfolding, this day and every day.

The GO GRATITUDE experiment that began in 2005 offers a model for making gratitude a habit. As of 3/14/07, 972,343 people have watched the GoGratitude Flash movie and 178,539 people from all walks of life and from 153 countries have joined the Gratitude Experiment since its launch on Nov 21, 2005. A wave of gratitude sweeps the globe. How refreshing.

I would like to express gratitude for my friend, Chris Bernard, and his vision of love and support. Thanks too, to all my friends, readers and family that fill my life with light and love. So many thanks. Happy Thanksgiving.

Global Consciousness

Most of us can feel the interconnectedness of life to some degree. To be sure, we all possess varying degrees of awareness of the "soul of humanity." How do you feel this connection and how does it effect your life?

I believe that each of our souls evolves, and every group that we participate in forms an evolving soul that together, comprise the soul of humanity. As we are involved and evolve, so does the soul of humanity.

Rudolph Steiner suggested that both East and West traditions expressed something along the same lines: "To Arjuna, Krishna says 'Thou must be so and so, thou must do this or that, then wilt thou rise stage by stage in thy soul-life.' To his Corinthians St. Paul says: 'One of you has this gift, another that, a third another; and if these work harmoniously together, as do the members of the human body, the result is spiritually a whole which can spiritually be permeated with the Christ.'...What the soul is to become, the destiny of the soul, how throughout the whole evolution of mankind it evolves in manifold ways, concerning all this St. Paul gives us quite definite and profound conclusions." What do YOU think?

The Oneness and the Separation

We all feel that we are unique individuals, and at the same time can feel that thread of connection that allows us to feel the oneness of life. How is this duality important in your life? I think that if we can embrace the oneness (or the god within us) and the sacredness of all others, we can see others as a reflection of ourselves unfolding. This can give us clues, like signposts to our own spiritual path.

According to Greg Braden, there are Seven Mirrors in the Essene Mystery of Relationship. These mirrors are:
1)who we are in the moment;
2)What we judge in the moment;
3)what has been lost, given away or taken away;
4)our most forgotten love;
5)our relationship with God;
6)our dark night of the soul;
7)our perfection.
According to this belief, our experience becomes a vibrational mirror that reflects one or some combination of mirrored patterns in others. Recognizing the wisdom of the mirror accelerates our evolution of emotion and understanding. God speaks to us and guides us through the universal law of vibration and our experience unfolds according to divine will. What do YOU think?