this wild-hearted thank you
Magic sparkling. Gratitude, a way of being.
The science is clear: Gratitude is good for our mental and physical health. It may be essential to happiness. Gratitude practices are good even when we don't feel like doing them.
Freedom then: Eventually to dance like dervishes in a gratitude so pure that we seek nothingbeyond. Complete wellbeing and lightness in receiving. Pure joy and an immediate letting go. What might this be like?
No stickiness. No guilt or gnawing. Ever. Gratitude for sunsets and delicious things, sure. Gratitude for the teachings available in the more difficult events in our lives, also. Gratitude when we have to ask someone for help, and then receiving such help, yes even this.
The last item can make me uneasy and I know I am not alone. Asking for help, receiving it: To feel this dependence , a vulnerability.
A contraction in the heart flavored with indebtedness, guilt, embarrassment. Confused storylines: "I owe in return." "I should not need help from others." "I am not worthy."
Reality then. We are built for it. My feelings of indebtedness and guilt are merely what I attach to reality. The belief that I have to be self-reliant or worthy is story. I don't have to follow these scripts.
Instead: To open my heart and say: "Thank you." Instead: To fly higher than ride my interpretations of reality. Even if there were a hidden expectation that the giver might hold: So what? "I don't feel the slightest desire to rescue you anymore," writes Anthony De Mello.
I don't have to play the game. I can drop story, story about story. And, yes, we are all worthy. Enough. We are all interdependent. In vulnerability I can find my belonging. “Every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you,“ Walt Whitman writes.
What I know: With a wild-hearted thank-you I transmit life's grace, joy. Dare I surrender to this grace?
Dare I love myself this much?
We all come from the same star dust. To simply say, thank you..."When a quiver caresses the heart / In the sheer exuberance of being here." (John O'Donohue)
And Hafiz (translation by Daniel Ladinsky):
Even
After
All this time
The Sun never says to the Earth,
"You owe me."
Look
What happens
With a love like that,
It lights the whole sky.”
Thanks as always for choosing to read this: I do not take it lightly. And so my intent is for these writings to serve as a compass (for all of us) to wake up, wisen up, show up. A mix of resources, links to articles, and quotes, a question to lean into, an invitation or an announcement. It's an ongoing experiment: Your thoughts are welcome.Together we soar wider, and grow our impact for good 10x. With gratitude, sophia.
