It is rare to meet a person whose life is full of gratitude. Even though the course of a single day may bring innumerable blessings to us, the few moments of genuine gratitude we experience are often overshadowed by our complaints, disappointments, sorrow, and frustration. We may not truly appreciate what we have until it is gone. And having lost the opportunity to be grateful, we simply find a new opportunity to be disappointed. Gratitude requires attention and reflection. If we don’t pay attention, the countless and constant ways we are supported go unnoticed. If we don’t reflect, we fail to acquire the wisdom that comes with perspective. As long as we hold fast to our ideal of what we deserve from the world we blind ourselves to the gifts we are receiving. We look back on our childhood and notice what could have been done for us and given to us that, we think, would have made us happier. The gap between our reality and our ideal of what it should have been like attracts our attention like a magnet. But to focus on this gap is to miss most of reality. We miss the countless moments when we were perfectly cared for and attended to. It’s an unworthy exchange that leads us to spiritual and emotional bankruptcy. When I narrow my vision to search for an ideal that my mind has created, life seldom complies. But when I broaden my vision to simply notice what life is offering, I find that I am surrounded by an abundance of care and support. Such awareness is the first step in retraining ourselves to truly open to the gifts the universe is offering to us…..Gregg Krech

the stars in our souls guide us without fail….where is the light leading us? how deep are our wishes when we look up at the sky? how deep is the night, dreaming of home? may the harmony of love be tucked in our stars…..

Great love has the potential to open the heart space and then the mind space. Great suffering has the potential to open the mind space, and then the heart space. Eventually, both spaces need to be opened, and for such people non-dual thinking can be the easiest. People who have never loved or never suffered will normally try to control everything with with an either-or-attitude, or all-or-nothing thinking. The mentality that divides the world into ‘deserving and undeserving’ has never been let go of by any experience of grace or undeserved mercy. Authentic love is of one piece. How you love anything is how you love everything. You cannot sincerely love another or forgive another’s offenses inside of dualistic consciousness. How you love is how you have accessed love……Richard Rohr

closed doors, open doors……

May you be blessed with discomfort at easy answers, half truths and superficial relationships so that you may live deep within your heart. May you be blessed with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace. May you be blessed with tears to shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger and war so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and turn their pain into joy. And may you be blessed with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in the world so that you can do what others claim cannot be done to bring justice and kindness to all children and the poor…..June Mack Maffin