Who’s on your right hand? Who’s on your left?
Typically this month’s article focuses on gratitude and family gatherings in the traditional way. We all look forward to being around the dinner table with family and filling ourselves with food, good cheer and companionship, taking in the moments during Thanksgiving Day to be thankful for our abundance.
This month I want to add some action to the thankfulness. I recently read an article about how it is great to have a practice of meditation and fostering gratefulness, but you also need to put that practice in action.
There is an old Zen saying…. “Words don’t cook rice,” I interpret that to mean that it is not enough to say you’re grateful and to thank someone, but your words must also align with your actions.
Lots of Questions to Ponder
How do you go about being present at the table and grateful for your given present situation? What actions do you take to show your gratitude for yourself and others?
And who do you have at your “table” who is at your right hand and at your left hand? This seems to be a reoccurring theme for me. As humans, we are learning, growing and experiencing and life seem to mirror that growth.
What are the characteristics of the people you want around you? Are you willing to let your integrity slide to be with someone or a group that doesn’t mirror your values? What are your values? What is truly important to you? And what does gratitude mean to you? Do your words and actions align?
While in treatment, I remember being angry with the fertility clinic staff. They didn’t call me on time, they messed up my orders and they did this or said that. Even though they were on my “side,” I felt like they were the “enemy” while I was on the front line of this “fertility war.” These thoughts kept me in a victim mode instead of being grateful for their knowledge, direction and expertise.
How do you hold the moment and act versus react? How do act in alignment with your values?
Wow, this is intense for November, a time to normally be fat and happy, right?
As you are dancing with the flow of creative energies to form your family, it is important to cultivate a practice of thinking and doing because ”words don’t cook rice.”
IF you have listened to my previous tele-workshops, you might know that I choose a goddess card for the night that I read during our time together. I adore Doreen Virtue’s Goddess Cards and feel the chosen card seems to be a divine message to those gathered online. During this time we are connected to each other via a common experience across an invisible network that joins us for that hour as one in togetherness.
A few workshops ago, I chose a card that didn’t seem to make sense to me about the night but I went ahead with reading it anyway. Later in the evening I received an email from an attendee about how the Goddess’ name also was her cat’s name. She had purchased the kitten right after a pregnancy loss. Before joining in on the call, she questioned if she should go forward. It seemed that the Goddess card’s message was meant especially for her, confirming her inner wisdom to move onto her next IVF cycle. She was so grateful for the little kitten that came into her life when she needed comfort.
We are interconnected in our oneness; extending ourselves from our heart of gratitude brings the ripples of what we extend back to us ten-fold.
So when you sit down at that abundant table on Thanksgiving, take a quick moment and be present in an atypical or unexpected way for the people on your right and left. I guarantee that you will receive the same unexpected ripple of gratitude!
Great Blessings and abundance.
Kristen
(Originally Published November 9, 2012)
