The experience of grace evokes the expression of gratitude. Grace and gratitude share the same root word along with gravitas, and there is a strong interconnection among these three states. When people internalize and integrate their experience of grace, their character naturally deepens and they develop gravitas. In Latin, gravitas is similar to charisma, and is defined as a quality that draws us to those who embody dignity, integrity, wisdom, substance, and presence. Being conscious of where grace is present in our lives motivates our expression of gratitude and cultivates gravitas. Gratitude is the external expression. These moments are rare gifts in which we open to an expansive place within our nature, where all is ‘right with the world.’…..Angeles Arrien

going against the grain of angst into a sweet bath of bliss, okness, radical gratitude…may you be struck by kindness and unnecessary daydreams, the kind that change everything….come into your own ancient insights…..

Moccasin Flowers

All my life,

so far,

I have loved

more than one thing,

including the mossy hooves

of dreams, including

the spongy litter under the tall trees.

In spring

the moccasin flowers

reach for the crackling

lick of the sun

and burn down. Sometimes,

in the shadows,

I see the hazy eyes,

the lamb-lips

of oblivion,

its deep drowse,

and I can imagine a new nothing

in the universe,

the matted leaves splitting

open, revealing

the black planks

of the stairs.

But all my life- so far-

I have loved best

how the flowers rise

and open, how

the pink lungs of their bodies

enter the fire of the world

and stand there shining

and willing- the one

thing they can do before

they shuffle forward

into the floor of darkness, they

become trees.

…..Mary Oliver

inevitable beauty

We often speak of knowledge dawning on us, and in truth, the gradual process by which mystical insight penetrates the ignorance of conditioning is much like the rising of the sun. As its first rays begin to catch the contours of the land, more and more details come to light until the world around us glistens brightly in the morning dew. Similarly, each insight reveals to us with greater clarity the nature of what is, as the light of spiritual realization dispels delusion and unveils the truth of things as they are. For some, this truth may indeed open up in a sudden blaze of understanding like the midday sun, but for many, the moment of true awakening is preceded by the subtle shifts of insight that help to prepare the way. As Emily Dickinson tells us, ‘The truth dazzles gradually, or else the world would be blind.’….John Greer