CONTEXTUAL APPRECIATION

For the past three years here at the church I serve I have invited people to join me in what I call a month long Grat-I-Challenge. We begin on November 1st , and the invitation is to engage seven different practices, most daily, that will heighten the awareness and experience of gratitude. As I write this blog it is the eighth day of the month and I already feel a palpable and vital increased aliveness within me as a result of these practices. I have kept a daily gratitude journal for many years. I make it a consistent practice to look for the good in every challenge. These are two facets of the Grat-I-Challenge which certainly are not new to me. It does seem, however, that when I am especially and intentionally ensconced in what I like to call Thanks-Living my days are Lighter and my energy more co-creatively focused.

So it reaffirms in my awareness that living in conscious relationship to gratitude, to appreciation, to blessing, to praise is not something that is reserved for one day or one month of the year. Every day is a day for thanks-living. Every day is a day in which I get to consciously look for the goodness and the blessings that I know are constantly surrounding me. Every day is a day to express gratefulness to those around me. Gratefulness not only for things they may do but for simply being who they are. Praising raises the vibration of everything around me because first it raises my own energetic frequency.

I always have a chance and a choice of how to respond to what is happening. It may not seem that way at times. Because we have functioning reptilian brains we all get triggered. We all have times when the internal seas are rough. We all have preferences that are not met. These are the times for me when I need to go deeply into my heart-center, breathe very consciously, and make the switch from content to context. From my Deeper Self I can appreciate that life is unfolding perfectly even when it seems out of control and my personal demands are not being met. I do not pretend to like what is. When I am not concealed in pretense I can expand into a context that attunes to my Higher Self, accepts what is as it is, and then appreciate the greater flow of life that I allow through my acceptance to move through me.

This too shall pass. When I am living from context and from a spacious appreciation I know beyond preference or programming that this too shall pass. This includes what I prefer as well as what I resist. In contextual appreciation it is a wondrous passing show that I can fully engage yet not be trapped in. This too shall pass, and, it is all for good. Two Truths that keep me centered and atone. I appreciate that I am here to appreciate in the sense of becoming more. As I bless what is I am blessed for certain.

I so appreciate you reading my musings, whether you agree with me or not. I appreciate you whether I know you or not. I appreciate that we have this perhaps momentary connection within a shared humanity. I appreciate you for being you.