Dear friends,
Congratulations.
You are here.
The beneficiary of coincidences beyond number,
Stretching back before time.
Take a minute now to give thanks for existence itself and in particular your own existence.
Welcome back.
Meister Eckhart tells us that if the only prayer we ever say is thank you,
It is enough.
You may be rich.
You may be poor.
You may be happy right now.
Or just now you might be having to cope with some difficulty.
Right now you might feel on top of the world.
Or maybe something has happened that leaves you feeling a little under the weather.
But the remembrance of the wonder of our being brings us all to a place of gratitude for so long as we remember to remain in awareness of the gift that is our life.
So many reasons for thankfulness.
As has been put to us by William Arthur Ward,
Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings,
Turn routine jobs into joy and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.
Let's have another one minute pause now.
Welcome back again.
Awareness of our being results in feelings of gratitude and thankfulness.
And this is so important.
Gratitude is food for the soul just as dinner is food for the body.
Awareness of all the good things going on in our lives must have a positive effect on our mental health.
Seeing the glass as half full adds to our store of positivity.
It encourages us to share what we have,
What we then see as our abundance.
Seeing our glass half full we realise how we can be of help to other people.
And although we don't offer help in order to receive a payback,
Our kind actions will eventually catch up with us.
Acting from a place of generosity,
Fuelled by gratitude,
We find to our surprise that what goes around comes around.
Gratitude expressed in generosity and kindness improves our relationships.
As we sow,
So shall we reap.
And when you think of it,
It stands to reason.
In the Christian tradition we have Jesus speaking about this very principle.
In the Gospel of Luke we read,
Give and it will be given to you.
A good measure,
Pressed down,
Shaken together and running over,
Will be poured into your lap.
For with the measure you use,
It will be measured to you.
Let's have another one-minute pause now.
Welcome back.
A quote from Paul Bloom.
We are constituted so that simple acts of kindness,
Such as giving to charity or expressing gratitude,
Have a positive effect on our long-term moods.
The key to the happy life,
It seems,
Is the good life.
A life with sustained relationships,
Challenging work and connections to community.
Words there from Paul Bloom.
So again,
Dear friends,
Congratulations.
You are here.
I am here.
We are here.
May each of us go out from this time and place to bring love and care and kindness into the world,
With all our actions fuelled by gratitude and thanksgiving.
Let the world be a better place because you and I are have found ourselves here with the gift of life.
Namaste.
