Tuesday, April 05, 2011

On gratitude

They say when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. I feel ready, but no teacher has appeared. I can only ask myself if I am really ready. A wise and intuitive friend once told me that I can pick the brain of a writer and spiritual guide long passed. And so tonight I have been calling on him to make himself known - to guide me through this process of reawakening the sleeping writer within. He smiles from someplace on the other side. With a smirk he reminds me in his own wordless way that I haven't spent enough time in silence, meditating, and asking for true guidance from the source of all creative energy. I got it. I hear you. But can you please give me a little tidbit to satisfy my soul?

He nailed it. My biggest challenge is to find the time and the space to fill a few notebooks and to search my soul for that which must be written. Or rather, that which is already written by must be made manifest. Here's what seems to need made manifest. I hope this is okay with you, Tom.

Blessings are everywhere if we simply open our eyes. As we were sitting at the kitchen table this past weekend, I looked at the table I had been able to set. Chicken sauteed in butter and garlic rice, fresh broccoli and juicy blackberries. The colors were vibrant and the food seemed to glow with a message of its own. How blessed you are, it reminded me. I looked across the table at my little family. We smiled, laughed, enjoyed each other's company, and I was struck by the thought that it was really quite silly to ever question my charmed life.

Somedays, it is easy to worry and wonder how particular things will work out. It is almost natural to spend the day focused on what we don't have instead of all that we do. And there are people on the other side of the world whose houses were swept away by water, whose families are missing, or whose livelihood is threatened daily by corrupt agents of the government or rebellious freedom fighters. One morning they woke up and the world was no longer what they knew. Their truths had been drastically changed by nature, or violence, or economic hardships.

This is not me. I lead a life filled with abundance and thoughtlessly forget gratitude. My home is warm and filled with love. My family is healthy. My fingers still type and my brain still thinks and I am loved beyond reason.

Today I will be gratitude. Thanks, Tom.

2 comments:

kevin said...

Hi Melissa :)

In both of the mediums you mention i can relate to your statement; "My biggest challenge is to find the time and the space to fill a few notebooks and to search my soul for that which must be written. Or rather, that which is already written but must be made manifest."

While so much of what is already written inside sometimes requires war to drag out and express it adequately in readable form, expression in the other medium can be an even greater battle.

In the final analysis though, that other will be more legible even to a casual observer than pen and ink (or digital type) to express what is written inside. And the gratitude of which you speak so sweetly can be expressed nowhere better than toward others in the minutes, hours and seconds of life. The challenge for me, and i suspect the same for most, is to put feet to those words.

Melissa said...

Kevin,
Wise words, my friend. For my part, I find it a little easier to say and act on those words waiting to get out, although in some cases these "words" aren't as life affirming as I might like to think.

What I know is that the word is a powerful thing in any form, and that making sure it is used for the most good is always a challenge.

Perhaps it is in silence that we are best able to choose what we will manifest?