Gratitude Like Grandma?

Acknowledging and Sharing Light and Abundance

I want to share my gratitude with my Unity family who sent me a card full of love after reading about my pickleball injury here on Substack. How blessed am I! I also want to share how blessed I am with my singing friend who has read all my Substack entries and cheered me on from the sidelines. My life is full of so much and it is these acts that assist me in remembering why I am here. May I pass this love and support along as my grandmother did……

Choose to Look? Or Not to Look?

After a week on vacation and a week back to work, I finally am sitting down with my dog, in my sunroom surrounded by the green children (plants), and enjoying the stillness. My screen door is open, which is unusual for this time of year, and I can hear the babbling of the little waterfall of the fishpond, where all five of my goldfish are fat and happy, having made it through the summer without a major attack. Gratitude.

Yet it is also easy for me to jump down the rabbit hole of negativity. In the last 36 hours I have learned about the removal of a colleague from her position (a powerful and brilliant woman of color who has been doing great things for *all* children in our State), a friend of mine is being sued for telling Truth (sorry – can’t give any details on that one, but stay tuned, you won’t believe the horror on this one) and I have had multiple conversations where individuals only see and know their side, and their words are damaging the careers of others (again, can’t go into details here). And, of course, there is the insanity of what is going on around us in the world.

I know people who refuse to turn on the news, surround themselves with only likeminded individuals or bury their heads in Pinterest. That doesn’t work for me. I wish sometimes it did. As my charge in my metaphysics class this week was to reflect on prosperity and abundance and develop a spiritual demonstration plan, I keep wondering how to do this and not feel like I am one of those people totally ignoring all of the challenges faced by others in the world, the degradation of our plant and the hatred being spewed between humans.

I recognize that it is a privilege to have a choice.

Prosperity and Abundance & Gratitude, Praise and Blessing

I really want to be angry and pissed off. It would be easy for me to do so. I want to shout and rant about the injustice that is occurring in the lives of those around me and maybe someday soon I will have that opportunity for some of the stories, but would that matter?

“The end justifies the means is morally and ethically bankrupt in a spiritual organization.”

May that quote be shared in context in the future, publicly. Until the day that we all can speak freely, speak Truth without retribution, question and call out without reappraisal, and engage in critical conversations without arrogance and indignant righteousness as a response, we will never be prosperous nor abundant. We only generate fear and smallness.

When we who have privilege choose to recognize the abundance and prosperity in the moment, when we take the opportunity to be grateful, provide praise where it is due and become the blessing to others; we can pay it back and also pay it forward.

A Lesson from Grandma K.

My grandmother grew up during the depression. She was the youngest of 7 children and at the age of 4, her father walked out on the family and her mother was forced to distribute the children to relatives (there wasn’t foster care at the time). My grandmother lived a rich life and passed away at the age of 101 last year. Her stories were inspiring and people who knew her all have stories of her generosity. Generosity of time, money, help and love. She was devoted to her family and worked her whole life to provide stability. When my mother and I were preparing for an estate sale following her death, we both commented on how she actually had very few possessions of ‘value’ – yet always had abundance to share with others. One thing that she often said to me when she helped out (usually with such things as childcare, household appliances like a vacuum cleaner when I couldn’t afford one, and an abundance of 20 dollar bills) was this: “My Aunt Effie helped me out when I was young. She told me to pass it on, so I ask that you just do the same.”

I have thought a lot about my grandmother this last week, along with abundance and prosperity and what she modeled for me growing up and through adulthood. I have never ever thought I was meant to be “poor” financially, and yet there has been a constant out flow of money. Yet spiritually there has been so much abundance. I am abundant with friendships, family and opportunity. And yet……the finances.

So here is how I am working on walking in the world these last two days and going forward. I decided to really *really* focus on gratitude and doing so with strength and voice, without shrinking, and championing that which I want to increase abundance in. I recognized that even with the worst-case scenario (losing my job, losing my house) I will likely not ‘go hungry’. What do I really need, anyway? I started by supporting my friend who needs an attorney. I am contemplating a Gofund me, as I don’t have deep pockets. (Interested in doing some good? Contact me privately). People need to be able to speak up for good without financial consequences. I gave a donation to the young people doing fundraising for the Nature Conservancy. If those who are able all give a little, more of Mother Earth’s habitat can be saved. AND, I am not letting those around me trash out people who are attempting to make systems better. (There have been some harder conversations in my work circle. In our institutions, we have to recognize that the power comes through seeing the bigger picture and not a myopic focus on an individual’s wants. We *all* are having to work more until we right the financial ship. No one will save us but ourselves.

Pilgrim of Hope

I am choosing to support what I value, with what little I have. The little I have is abundance beyond what many in the world have. As a colleague shared in an address to our working group, “Be a pilgrim of hope.” (She had returned from taking a group of youth to Italy for a Catholic youth gathering, and articulately shared the importance of critical hope) – that is another story, but her quote works here.

Abundance and Prosperity will increase, as the Divine allows, when I acknowledge what I have in the present. Sharing with others and LIVING the abundance is key.

I choose to look for and share LOVE in every person I interact with
I choose to acknowledge my present is ENOUGH yet not limited
I choose to share my ABUNDANCE
I choose to live FREE of fear.