QMusings

This being a Friday, I figure being Thankful was a good topic.

It’s also Day 5 in my “Five Uplifting Days” series of posts – a series of posts that I was inspired to write.

I actually had other plans. However, I essentially received a Message From The Universe and the message was (loosely paraphrased):

“Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to write 5 posts next week. Each post must inspire and uplift your readers; must help them believe in themselves, perhaps leads them to make a positive change in their lives. That’s all. Just one post a day. We know you can do it.”

Well, you know how I feel about requests that begin with “just” – RUN FOR THE HILLS!

Of course, the rest of the message (loosely paraphrased) went like this:

“Should you decide to ignore this message, well, let’s just say your spiritual awakening will uh, be somewhat delayed.”

[Celestial apologetic shrug]

As you can see, this has been one goofy week for me.

Anyway, I woke up this morning without a post but an idea – I knew that I wanted to write about gratitude.

All week long my mornings began with overcast skies. Golden light would begin to break through sometime in the late afternoon.

Today I woke to beautiful golden light filtering through the leaves of the tree outside my window. I love that tree, it’s outside my apartment window and it’s one of the best things about my apartment.

The light cast long shadows and I knew, just knew, that the golden light would last all day.

For most of us, our workweek starts on Monday morning and ends Friday evening and at some point on Friday we say, “Thank GOD it’s Friday!”

What are we thankful for?

We’re thankful that the week is OVER, that work has ended and maybe, just maybe, we can now have some time to ourselves, some time enjoying our “real” life.

Seems like a very sad thing to be grateful for.

Today I got out of bed to the beautiful golden light and said to myself, I am grateful for that light. I also had my annual physical to go to and I was grateful that it was at 9am because I had to fast for the cholesterol test. I figured I’d be lucky to be able to eat something by 11am.

I’ve always felt thankful for what I consider a pretty fortunate life. I make an effort to remind myself that I have so much to be grateful for: my basic needs are covered and I have the luxury to work on my personal development.

I’ve seen so many people who have done so much more than I with so much less that I know that I am very fortunate, that when it comes right down to it, I am capable of so much more.

As grateful as I feel, I have always felt that my gratitude wasn’t deeply felt. I’ve read many books on spiritual growth and many of the authors described a deep connection to a higher power and were grateful in a much more profound way. Steve Pavlina of Personal Development For Smart People describes my feeling of gratitude as “Level 1.” That is, I’m grateful for my health, possessions, family and relationships.

The type of gratitude that I hope to experience is what he calls Level 2 Gratitude.

He writes: “I think of this as “holistic gratitude” because it’s independent of situations and circumstances. This is a feeling of gratitude for life itself, for existence, for anything and everything you experience.”

The essence of what he describes as Level 2 Gratitude is a sense of wonder at your very existence.

He writes that instead of saying “I am grateful for [fill in the blanks]” you say, “I am grateful.”

That is the kind of gratitude I want to experience.

One of the themes in my blog is to always look for beauty – in people, in experiences, in life.

Steve writes, “Gratitude is a lens for uncovering beauty.”

Level 2 Gratitude: a sense of WOW, a sense of wonder at your very existence.

I like that. I hope to be grateful. Don’t you?

Update: I thought I’d share with you that I took the above photo from the porch of a beach cottage in Rooi Els, a village tucked away along the Western Cape of South Africa.  If you think the above photo of sunset over the ocean is beautiful, imagine the reality.

When I see such beauty, when I become aware of it, when I am caught off guard by the realization that I am surrounded by people who love me and whom I love,  THAT is the time where I sense the difference between being grateful and having gratitude.

As I attempted to capture the beauty of the sunset, for a brief moment I experienced being in the moment. I felt the WOW, the sheer wonder that I am alive to experience THIS.

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