Okay welcome everybody,
Thank you for being here.
I'm going to invite you to close your eyes,
Place both your hands over your heart and start taking some nice deep breaths.
Breathing in to your heart,
Starting to arrive here in this space.
Divine Goddess,
Surround us in light,
Strong and true,
A gentle shield in all we do.
No harm shall pass,
No ill shall stay,
Only love and peace to light our way.
With every breath we stand secure,
Protected,
Grounded,
Calm and pure.
May this space be soft and bright,
Held in warmth and quiet light,
Hearts connected far and near,
Gathered gently together here.
I'm going to invite you to breathe in the light that surrounds us,
Breathing in that beautiful energy from the universe.
Breathing it into your heart,
Breathing it into your body,
Allowing that white light to surround you,
Feeling it wrapping you up like a warm blanket,
Feeling it connecting us all here together in this space.
Breathing it in,
Breathing it in,
Perhaps you might even visualize breathing that light in through your crown chakra at the top of your head.
Breathing it all the way down in through your body,
And when you exhale visualize long healthy roots growing from your base chakra down into mother earth.
So breathing in that light for protection,
Breathing out those roots for grounding.
One more nice big deep breath in,
And out.
As I invite you to hold your cacao so that you feel the warmth in your hands,
You might even place your cacao directly against your chest so that you feel the warmth in your heart.
Mama Cacao,
Your gift we received with grace,
Thank you for holding this sacred space.
We honour the ancestors,
The lands,
The histories,
And thank the farmers and families who tend to your trees.
We accept this gift with gratitude,
Respect and care.
Giving thanks to the earth and fire,
Water and air.
Just breathing in,
Smelling that beautiful aroma,
Feeling it in your hands,
Feeling it in your heart.
May this cup be warm in our hands,
A quiet bridge across distant lands.
Together,
Sipping,
Breathing slow,
Held in cacao's heart we grow.
Tonight's ceremony is going to be a little different,
It is a ceremony of gratitude.
Not a lesson,
Not how to incorporate more gratitude into your life,
This is my gratitude.
Tonight's ceremony is a quiet thank you from my heart to yours.
For almost five years now,
Many of you have sat with me in these ceremonies,
In these quiet moments,
Breathing,
Reflecting,
Healing.
Some of you have been here from the very beginning,
And some of you have only just arrived,
Yet each of you have become a part of this circle,
And you've all become a part of my heart.
So tonight with this cup of cacao,
I pay gratitude for each and every person who has sat in ceremony with me,
Every listener,
Every kind message,
Every quiet heart that shows up.
Tonight,
This ceremony is for you.
And as we take our first sip together,
Know that you are deeply appreciated here.
So I sip to you.
As you breathe into your heart,
Feeling that first sip opening and connecting our hearts in this space,
I thank you.
I thank you for being here,
Whether it's your first time or your hundredth time,
Thank you.
Many of us may never meet in person,
Yet we've sat together across oceans,
In different time zones,
Breathing the same slow breaths,
Holding the same quiet hopes,
Apart but together.
And as we continue to sip together,
I show you my gratitude to each and every one of you,
With a song I wrote as a thank you for your kindness,
For your support,
And for walking this path with me.
Our times together heal me in ways that I can't express,
And it led me to so much more gratitude,
Love,
And true connections,
That I wanted to share that with you guys here tonight.
So I'm going to invite you to sip your cacao as you listen to my gratitude.
Gratitude lives in small places,
In unexpected support and kind phrases,
With bliss,
When someone says.
Thank you my unseen friends,
Thank you for being here,
Thank you if you have ever listened quietly,
If you've sent a kind message,
Or a gift,
Or shown up with an open heart,
Please know that you have made a difference in my life.
So tonight,
As I offer my gratitude to you,
I invite you to truly receive it,
Not just hear the words,
But feel them.
Let them settle softly within you,
And hold them as something real,
And something that's meant for you,
Because they are.
May your light be stronger than your shadows,
May your kindness find you when you need it most,
And may you always remember that you are a part of this circle,
You are a part of my heart.
The relationships that we've grown over these last five years,
Voice to listener,
Cup to cup,
Breath to breath,
They matter to me,
You matter to me.
Thank you my unseen friends,
Blessed be.
