Saturday, October 25, 2008

Thank U/Hallelujah



Today I am pondering gratitude and its importance. There is so much talk of how the Universe will reward your richly if you maintain an attitude of gratitude. That may well be, but what about how great it feels? To me, gratitude is close kin to forgiveness. It becomes so much easier to forgive someone when you can find the gift they have brought you, hidden in the pain of whatever it was that required forgiveness, and be grateful for it. With pain sometimes it is nothing else but the reminder that I am alive, that I am human, that I feel. We take the pain and transmute it into blessing. A beautiful alchemy, a softening, an authentic experience of who we are.

I recently revisited a Tori Amos song and was almost knocked over by the bridge; "Give me life, give me pain, give me my life again.." I am often reminded how we can be grateful even for the difficult things. I believe when Leonard Cohen wrote "Hallelujah" it was not so much about a bitter and broken love affair as it was the expression of gratitude for having had the experience. The word "Hallelujah" itself is poetry that cannot help but express gratitude for life itself. How can we not be thankful for that?




Today I am grateful for:

• The opportunity to state my intentions and guide my day; it was a productive one!
• My two furbabies and their unconditional love.
• That I am about to have my car fully paid off!
• The chance to cheer up one of my sisters over the phone!
• Photographs of purple sunsets, twinkling stars, spooky black trees against a harvest moon, and Leonie's amazing wedding photography.
Galadarling's Quote of the Day by Erica Jong
• meeting new friends on Blogger!
• the opportunity to watch the seasons change; the brave and wondrous aliveness of a leaf at the end of its life should be an inspiration to us all -- I hope I get to tango into my own sunset like they do.

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