High on Happiness

Posts Tagged ‘Gratitude’

Dish yourself up some crispy green joy.  Lay in a layer of smooth satisfaction. Sparkle it with some slices of snappy delight.  Add a touch of velvety gratitude, and a handful of crunchy pride.  Mellow it out with some silky serenity.

Then toss it with love, drizzle it with creamy contentment and let it flow like inspiration over your tongue.

Feel free to heap on whatever tickles your taste.  Personally, I like mine sprinkled with laughter, spiked with a dash of wonder and awe.

The little shrub sat by the edge of the abandoned playground in the snow.  Since they drained the lake last spring, no one walked here any more.

It might have been lonely.  But it was too filled with joy to think about what was missing.  Instead it celebrated how much it had been given.

Here was the snow, after all, sparkling in the sun, and the sun itself, painting everything with light.   And now and then, geese would descend from the sky, and strut their comical struts and tell the tales of their travels.

It might have felt inadequate, tucked as it was beside the towering pines.  But it was too glad in its being to compare itself with others.  It simply rejoiced in all its good fortune.

The soil that nurtured its roots was roomy and rich; the clouds brought it rain.  It had good neighbors.  It had the gift of life itself, freely given, asking nothing in return.

It had the starry skies at night, and the song of the wind playing on the slopes of the hills.  It had the seasons, each with its own wondrous gifts.

And so it grew and put forth its lovely colors and sang its melody of gratitude, which, as it turned out, erased every potential complaint.

“Fast away the old year passes . . .”

The days are brief now and so crammed with activity that we hardly see them go.   And yet there are tiny moments, tucked here and there for you, if you would but take them.

And if you did, you could use them to think back through the passing year at the times that brought you joy.  Just think . . . what, in the last year, filled you with pride?  What made your heart sing?  What was fun?  What did you overcome?  When were you most at ease?  What was your biggest challenge?  You greatest success?

You could string them together, these moments, and make a chain of smooth gratitude beads, pass them through you fingers when you lay down to sleep at night.

You could take the tiny moments and fill them with your aspirations.  You could think how you will shape the tomorrows flowing so swiftly toward you, so malleable and open to conforming to your intentions and dreams.  What would you leave behind you as you step into the coming year?  With what colors would you like to paint the coming days? How will you shape them?  What would you like to experience, to express, to achieve?

What would like to look back and remember a year from now, when the days are brief and rushing quickly by?  You could take these little dreams and string them together into a chain of gleaming choices, drape it around you in the morning as you begin the new day.

Fast away the old year passes.  But tucked in its quick days jeweled moments gleam.  Make them yours.  Use them well.

Deep, deep, deep within us, beneath the rush, beneath the doubt and uncertainty, under all the questions, happiness flows.  It’s not a thing unto itself; you can’t hold it in your hand.  It’s a quality of being.  In fact, its being’s essence.

Happiness is the fragrance given off by the love at the center of the great Yes.  It’s the music of the eternal dance, the starlight of the infinite sky.  It rides on contentment’s sighs, and on the petals of flowers.  It cavorts in laughter and in great heaps of clouds.  It paints the breath of babies and the wings of birds.  It flows in sunlight and shadows, and glides across the faces of mountains and the surfaces of streams.

Within the human heart, it’s the gloriousness of gratitude, the tenderness of kindnesses given and received.  It’s confidence and pride in achievement.  It’s hope in the darkness and joy in the dawn.

Happiness comforts and lifts, delights and inspires.  It erupts in mirth and frolics in fun.  It creeps into our minds as curiosity and interest and sends us probing into mysteries and miracles galore.  It bubbles up as pleasure and towers up as awe.  And when you dive into its depths it enfolds you in its rapture and fills you with the sound of peace, singing.

Gratitude opens as golden as dawn, unfolding the petals of the heart.  In its light, joy sings, peace reigns, hope bursts forth.

Its warmth dissolves fear.  Its power blots out lack.  It comforts and satisfies and fills.

To taste gratitude is to taste the nectar of life.  Its richness revives us and reveals life’s worth.  It drenches us in complete acceptance.

It comes as a gift, humbling us and making us whole.  Its gentle flame kindles our desire to extend ourselves to one another, to give of our talents, to participate in life with gladness and joy.

In the beauty of its light, we sense our connection to all that is, and to the undying Yes that dissolves all the mysteries.  “Be at peace,” it whispers to our hearts and through them.  “All is well, and you are loved.”

As today unfolds before you, open your heart to all it holds. Anticipate it with joy; drink it in fully as the moments flow past. Then, as it comes to a close, savor the beauty and richness of all it held, for each day is one of a kind, unique in all eternity.

For you, it spread its gifts – its lessons, its pleasures, its challenges and blessings.   And each was custom tailored to reflect to you who you are.

Embrace this day, and draw it into your heart with love.  Send those who played their parts in it your gratitude and well-wishes, for they were messengers sent to you to bring meaning to the day, to reflect your joy, to illuminate your shadows, to draw you more fully into the great feast of being.

See the treasures that were set so plainly before you and let your heart be filled with gladness and with thanks.

As I walked along the dry edges of the creek snapping photos, I found myself wondering what aspect of happiness I would write about tonight.  Then I looked down and laughed.

Right in front of me a heart shaped piece of blue, water-buffed glass rested on the rocks.  “Love; Rocks,” my brain labeled the scene.

Synchronicities are just so cool.

“Love rocks, hey?”  I said to myself.  “Can’t argue with that.”  Especially in spring, when all the earth’s critters – even the featherless two-legged kind – have romance on the brain.

Here’s to romance!  Here’s to the force that makes the world go ‘round.  Here’s to the birds and the bees.

Here’s to love’s toughness and strength, to its tenderness and generosity.  Here’s to the way it opens us up, letting us see the world through each other’s eyes.  Love rocks.

Love lifts us and comfort us.  It nurtures and corrects.  It forgives and heals us and inspires us to reach for our very highest selves.

Love lets us see the best in each other, and in ourselves.  It lets us tolerate each other  when we’re not too sure we like each other’s quirks and shortcomings.  “We like each other because,” the saying goes; “We love each other anyway.”  Love rocks.

Love delights and sparkles our lives.  It gives them depth and meaning.  It turns strangers into neighbors, and neighbors into friends, and friends into families and communities. It connects.  It supports.  It builds.

Love is the highest, truest thing we know, the most universal, the very stuff from which everything is made, the essence of life.  It sings itself through all that is.  It transcends time and space.

Love is in every gentle touch, every laugh, every smile, every word of gratitude and kindness, every gesture of giving.  It’s the basis for every virtue.  It’s what gives us courage and gives life zest.  Love rocks.

Open your spigots and let love flow.  Pour yourself a mug of it.  Splash some around.
The more of it you give away, the more of it you get.  And that is its miracle and magic.

Love rocks.

“Joy is a heart full and a mind purified by gratitude.” ~Marietta McCarty

One heartfelt whisper of gratitude is the most potent, balancing, empowering act you can perform to rekindle the light of joy.  It’s the reconnection of your soul with the Great Spirit that holds the stars in their courses and sustains every form of life.

Gratitude is simple thanks, an acknowledgement of all that sustains us, enriches us and brings us joy. It’s the heart’s truest expression of appreciation for life’s gracious gifts, for the wonders of being, for being itself.

It’s always appropriate, and not one syllable of it is ever lost.  It nourishes the hearts of the giver and the recipient alike.  It enlarges us and cleanses our vision.  It opens us to the flow of happiness and peace.

If you would taste more happiness in your life, begin by allowing your heart to sing its thanks.

“Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.” ~John Milton

Of all the colors happiness wears, the one that sweeps us most deeply to its core is awe.   It bathes us in a kind of majestic silence, stilling our racing thoughts and opening our hearts in a glorious gratefulness for the sheer privilege of being alive in the midst of this beautiful, unfathomable mystery.

As it washes through us, awe both humbles and exalts us, and the only response we can make is one of thanksgiving.  And because awe is so linked to gratitude, gratitude is a pathway that leads us to it.  Practice gratitude until you feel it in your bones, and you will be transformed with reverence for life, and with exquisite joy.

“We need a renaissance of wonder.  We need to renew, in our hearts and in our souls, the deathless dream, the eternal poetry, the perennial sense that life is a miracle and magic.” ~E. Merrill Root

Wonder is gratitude’s cousin, a welling up of awe at the glorious mystery of it all.  It comes from somewhere beyond thought, lifting the veil of naming so that we see can what is before us directly and be amazed.  It opens up our child-eyes and reveals a world that’s fresh and unexplained.

Wonder is filled with the isness of things in all their pristine beauty.  It shows us their sparkle and depth, their harmony and connection, the way that everything dances together in one grand, majestic song.

It piques our appetite for life.  It teases our curiosity.  It shows us how little we know, how much remains to be discovered.  And so we probe the grand design of the world, with its atoms and quarks, its cells and spinning galaxies.  And we are stunned by it and surprised and filled with admiration.

“From wonder into wonder, existence opens,” said LaoTzu.  At every turn, there is more to see and all of it is a marvel, and none more than we who look upon it.  We, who are blessed with consciousness and perception; we, who can feel ecstasy and love; we are blessed just to be.

As this holiday season of joy and celebration descends upon us, open your heart to the wonder of it all.  Let your soul sing its song, and your mind open to its beauty and reclaim the sense that life is indeed miracle and magic.