I bet you are thinking this is going to be the usual “gratitude” post….and you are right….well sort of. Normally, or at least it has been my experience and observation, folx have a pretty easy time feeling grateful for all the fun stuff in life…the good stuff…the sweet stuff…the OMG amazing stuff. It is the “not so good” or “WTH” stuff that is often where it is more difficult to squeeze out drops of gratitude. But, I am purposing, that is just the space where gratitude often hides. Now I can only speak for my own experience, but looking back over this past year it is in the messy stuff where I am finding the most gratitude. Those times where I was hanging by a thread, knee deep in…well you know…is where the wholeness of life peaked through. Where authenticity beat me in a well fought arm wrestling match. In spiritual circles we talk a lot about wholeness…most of the time we get it right….and sometimes not so much. Wholeness is not an absence of challenge or the WTH stuff, but instead it includes the depth and breadth of our human experience. It is the triumph and the challenge. It is through the totality of our experience that we truly rub shoulders with the wonder and amazement that is LIFE. The divine expression is housed in this wholeness. When we embrace this reality it gives birth to life altering gratitude. And isn’t that what we are all here for anyway?
Rev Ryan