Gratitude & Jello

[Rev. Renee Bledsoe]

This morning in my meditation/reflection I had a wonderful "congealing" of thought. It wasn't something that I haven't been aware of, but today it became a little more focused in my mind. Today it looked like something a little less liquid, and just a touch more formed, something I can now bounce and jiggle around in my brain and even touch with my hands. Oh, it's delicious isn't it?, when some slippery thought takes shape, not unlike jello (with whipped cream, of course).

What I'm talking about is gratitude. To me gratitude is very much like forgiveness and faith. If you ain't there, you ain't there and no amount of talking and judging is going to get you there. If you believe or do not believe something you just do or do not. And as Einstein said (paraphrased) "you can't solve a problem with the same consciousness that created it." No truer words were ever spoken!

So, now we know the secret to experience things like gratitude, forgiveness and faith (which btw, might be likened to the fruit in the jello mold) is to change our consciousness. But, what does that mean? How do we do that? How do we become grateful when someone smashes into our car, insults us, hurts us or our loved ones, rips us off, divorces us or worse?

And it was right about here in my reflection that my jello mold started to really take shape. My guides must have been working overtime on this one because they really let me take a peak into another realm of my psyche. The answer is, AT FIRST WE DON'T. For as long as we are connected to our emotions (which we must be in order to be healthy and whole) we MUST experience our full range of emotions. And emotions must be processed by the brain, the psyche, the heart and the body in order to do their job, which is to inform us of our thoughts, beliefs and feelings. And the KEY is to be able to "sit with" and trust that this IS an ALCHEMICAL PROCESS that we WILL move through if we will allow ourselves to do so!

The more we allow ourselves to go into our pain, and the less resistance we have to that pain, the sooner we will pick up the lesson, the gift and move through. And furthermore, when we move through and actually get to the other side of the situation, we can rest assured that we will not be the same as when we began. And we must come into acceptance of THAT. For it is then and only then that we can begin to truly experience gratitude and forgiveness at the deepest, mind altering and consciousness raising levels.

When we go through this process enough times and experience the benefits of these changes and the power of these transformations, that is the mechanism by which we develop FAITH in this process and the cosmic ability to become healed and empowered through the experience of life itself. This is what is meant by "the journey is the destination". This is how we grow and evolve as human beings. And to place blocks on this process is what stops us from truly living.

But what do we do with all that pain, especially when we are going through something really major? There are two answers to that:

1) SIT WITH
The first is that we sit with it and realize that it will not kill us to feel our feelings and in fact quite the contrary. We acknowledge that if we don't allow it to move through us that it will kill us (even slowly over time).

2) REACH OUT
Then secondly we come to realize that the only way we can tolerate and harvest the gifts from this process is to reach out to others for assistance, compassion, healing and loving kindness. This is where all kinds of unexpected things can happen as we allow the power of the light to work through people as we ASK for what we need. This is where our issues and problems become "grist for the mill" of life.

And finally when we come full circle with ourselves we will find as T.S. Eliot put it, " that the end of all exploring is when we arrive where we started and know the place for the first time." It is at this pivotal point that the unthinkable (that is to that "old mind") can happen and our consciousness shifts and the jello moves into a new mold. For as the grace of this amazing process unfolds and expands in our lives we do become deeply grateful, truly forgiving and lifted by an unsinkable faith in The Eternal Will to Good. We know it in our bones, we have endured the initiation, we have experienced it for ourselves and the gnosis, the knowing is complete.

The magic of this process, this life, when we open our eyes to it, when we peel back the layers of protective denial and realize we don't have to go it alone, will bring us to not only a place of gratitude, but of absolute worship and appreciation as we realize how cared for and how abundant we truly are. For we have this universe, this planet, animals, nature, art, music, invention, culture and beauty. BUT MOST OF ALL WE HAVE EACH OTHER. We are the absolute key to each others' abundance in all things, both spiritual and material.

Gratitude, forgiveness and faith cannot be forced, they must be funded, fueled and sourced. We can't do this alone. We've got to know that or we will continue to bring in the experiences that force us to reach out. The soul's journey will not be thwarted. Yet over 2000 years ago we were released from the path of suffering. Most of us are finally catching on to this. We can actually create our lives from a place of deep love of all that is, infinite creativity, beauty and joy. This is what will ultimately inspire the flow of gratitude and abundance in our lives that taps into the eternal source as we ask ourselves in our newly purified state of mind, "What is my heart's desire?"