It happens this way …
On this Memorial Day Weekend, I’d like to share something that arrived in my inbox a few weeks ago.
Two friends had been emailing back and forth about how to word their daily prayers when, admittedly, they didn’t know what to pray for. Finally, they figured they couldn’t go wrong with prayers of gratitude. With thanks to them, I’d like to share what they composed, and how I’m now praying:
I am grateful that I have guidance for the Highest Good.
I am grateful that I am able and willing to follow that guidance.
I am grateful that I have all the resources I need.
I am grateful that I know I am deeply loved.
I am grateful that I am safe.
I am grateful that I am peaceful, kind, and respectful to myself and to all creation.
Notice how the present tense grounds us in this moment and challenges us to think and feel about the world as we want it to be – not as it is. Feeling in this kind of prayer is as essential as thinking. Can we feel the guidance and safety and peace and kindness and respect we are asking for as if we already have it? Someone once said that reality is a series of beliefs. What if we believed that what we long for is here-and-now? What if we could not only put that here-and-now into words and think about them, but feel them deeply? How powerful that would be!
Of course, you have your own gratitude lists. May you use them as guides to create the reality you want to live. What a way to celebrate Memorial Day – with memories and feelings of gratitude!
Lovely post, Carolyn. I keep a gratitude journal (sporadically….) and over the years it has changed how I think about things on a daily basis. I’d be interested to know if you change up the prayer depending on what’s going on in your day. That’s something I would do 🙂 Spending a few moments being thankful every day for whatever is right in front of me has – I think – made me notice when to show some more generosity towards others.