July 5
Mt 11, 25-30
“The word ‘thank you’ —wrote Eric Rolf— has a high vibration; it is one of the most important expressions of love. Allow yourself to be alive. What are you grateful for in your life today?”.
“The discipline of gratitude —in the words now of Henri Nouwen— is an explicit effort to recognize that everything I am and receive is a gift of love, a gift that should be celebrated with joy”.
Gratitude is the most effective antidote against complaint, regret and victimhood, which parasitize and poison our relationships. Gratitude frees us from all of this because it connects us with wholeness and makes us transcend the identification with the self and its myopic gaze.
The self can only give thanks when its expectations are met or when it receives something that pleases it. Gratitude, however, is unconditional. Because it is not “something” that we can or cannot live. As we understand ourselves, we discover that we are gratitude. Therefore, it flows easily in the very moment we live in connection with our deep identity. Certainly, looked at from that place, where we are one with life, everything is a gift, even in those situations where the self experiences adversity, pain, loss or threat. It may not be easy for us to take distance from it. However, as soon as we do, we perceive that everything is Grace. And Grace activates gratitude.
When we come into contact with our deep identity, gratitude performs a double miracle, transforming itself into peace and joy. You verify that, by living gratitude, your worries end. And that, the more grateful you are, the happier you feel. When I had every reason to complain, I began to give thanks, and I realized that I was truly healing.
ENRIQUE MARTÍNEZ LOZANO (Weekly Newsletter)