Monday, April 11, 2011

Gratitude prayer

When we walk to the edge of all the light we have and take the step into the darkness of the unknown, we must believe that one of two things will happen. There will be something solid for us to stand on or we will be taught to fly. Patrick Overton
... And either way, something amazing will happen. Because the edge of light turning to darkness is always there. Brene Brown in The Gifts of Imperfection writes: The dark does not destroy the light: it defines it. It is our fear of the dark that casts it into the shadows.

Ask yourself, did I awake this morning and immediately think, "I'm tired." "I didn't get enough sleep." "I don't want to get up."

Or, did you awake and thank the night for the darkness of sleep?

Did you greet the day fretting of all you have to do, worrying about not enough time to get it all done?

Or, did you embrace the time you have, acknowledging gratefully that your day is filled with moments for you to enjoy exciting, wonderful work and play and that you have all the time you need to live it up?

Lynn Twist in The Soul of Money writes:

We each have the choice in any setting to step back and let go of the mind-set of scarcity. Once we let go of scarcity, we discover the surprising truth of sufficiency. By sufficiency, I don't mean a quantity of anything. Sufficiency isn't two steps up from poverty or one step short of abundance. It isn't a measure of barely enough or more than enough. Sufficiency isn't an amount at all. It is an experience, a context we generate, a declaration, a knowing that there is enough and that we are enough.

Sufficiency resides inside of each of us, and we can call it forward. It is a consciousness, an attention, an intentional choosing of the way we think of our circumstances.


Our fear of never having enough, doing enough, being enough keeps us from seeing the 'enough' we have. We are a society of having to 'do more'. Be thinner. Get richer. Grow up. Dig in. Root out... we keep looking for more, not seeing what we've got is all we need to live in the moment, living fearlessly in what we have.

We keep looking to do more and have more without realizing, what we have is sufficient. It is enough to give us joy and happiness. We are enough to be okay, just the way we are.

The darkness frightens us because we fear living in the light.

My goal for today -- embrace everything before me with love and gratitude. To fill my heart with joy I must fill my thoughts with thankfulness for what is before me and around me and within me.

I am so excited. I received the next to final proof of the book, WHERE, last night. Today, I am grateful for the opportunity to edit and review each page, thankful for the creativity that went into its creation. Thankful for those who have shared their gifts so generously to make it happen.

Today, I will live in the light, thanking the darkness for the night that has given me rest so that I can have the energy and peace of mind I need to go to the edge and fly.

My prayer for today is: Thank you! I give enough. I have enough. I do enough. I am enough.

May you live your day filled with gratitude. May your day unfold in joy.

4 comments:

Maureen said...

Lovely gratitude post. Have a wonderful week.

S. Etole said...

Wonderful thoughts to begin the day and new week ...

Anonymous said...

the next to final proof...
yea!

Unknown said...

Oh yes, I do like this. Gratitude for what we have today.

Here's to simply being 'enough'

Cheers