Gratitude is our most direct line to God and the angels. If we take the time, no matter how crazy and troubled we feel, we can find something to be thankful for. ~ Terry Lynn Taylor
Be Grateful
I know there’s much in our world today that makes us wonder if we humans are lost forever. We wrote about the Newtown school shootings in a recent post, Is Peace on Earth an Impossible Dream? Following shortly after the Newtown tragedy was another senseless shooting in my home area of New York State.
Our hearts and love go out to all those touched by those events. I’ve had similar experiences in my own life. So I know the pain can be unfathomable and nearly unbearable.
And yet, despite the problems and pain most of us occasionally face during our lives, there is also much to be grateful for. The good in our world, in other people, and in ourselves far outshine the dark side of life.
Here are a few words from Spirit:
Abundance, in all forms, is your birthright as a child of God. And yet so many humans, even among the lightworkers, are living lives of struggle. Your highest good, your abundance does not have to come through pain and struggle. It can come to you joyfully and easily.
If you are not experiencing the abundance you want in your lives, it is because you are literally pushing it away from yourself. After all, your natural state, your birthright, is abundance.
You get what you focus your time and energy on. If you focus mostly on lack and limitation, those are what you experience in your life. If you focus mostly on abundance and prosperity, by giving thanks for what you already have, you will experience more of those. It’s your choice.
The giving of thanks, the expression of gratitude, is a truly magical tool. A tool you have, literally, at the tip of your tongue. Give thanks for the many blessings you already have in your life, and they will increase. They must increase. It’s a universal law.
Giving thanks, expressing heartfelt gratitude, every day of your lives (even if only for a few moments each day) will bring you rich rewards beyond your highest and wildest expectations and dreams.
Excerpted from the Spirit Oracle Cards by John Cali, Frederic Calendini, and Stephanie Quesada (2012).
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Do you believe gratitude is a “magical tool,” as Spirit said? How can you express more gratitude in your life?
Please share your thoughts and comments with us below.
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Copyright © 2015 by John Cali
If you know someone who could benefit from this post, please forward it to them with a personal note.
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A friend sent us this video which is a perfect match to this post. It powerfully and poignantly illustrates how much beauty there is in our world—beauty that is available to us every day, but which we often fail to see. Thank you, Susan!
Related links:
Is Peace on Earth an Impossible Dream?
The Power of Gratitude
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What other subjects would you like us to talk about in these posts? Please email me.
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About John Cali
Writer and publisher John Cali, author of 10 books, talks to ghosts and dead people. He writes about these adventures at his blog and website, and in his upcoming book, Conversations with Spirit: Real Answers To Life’s Pesky Questions, Book 1.
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Susan
Thank you, John and Spirit, for this timely reminder. I wish love and blessings be extended to you, all of your readers, and through all of creation. May we all be perfect reflections of Divine Love…
Susan
John Cali
Thank you very much, Susan, for your kind wishes. Love and blessings to you also. May the spirit of this season bring peace and joy to all our hearts.
Patricia Nolan Stein
This is wonderful. Thank you so much. I appreciate the wisdom you share with us.
John Cali
Thanks very much, Patricia, for your kindness.
Toni
Happy Thanksgiving, John!
Love,
Toni
John Cali
Thank you, Toni. A most Happy Thanksgiving to you too!
Love,
John
Pat
Thank you John for this post as a reminder of gratitude and the beauty around us if we would take the time to look.
I shared the video on my Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pat.ruppel.1). It touched my heart.
God bless.
John Cali
You’re most welcome, Pat! And thank you for sharing the video. I appreciate it!
Blessings,
John
Conshana
Thank You, John, Susan, and so very many others, who have been and are, Blessings in MY Life, and for whom I am eternally Grateful.
Every Soul I have met in my life has gifted me, in one manner or another. Some, I had to mature to realize they were gifts, and not unmitigated disasters. I pray now, that I am a Gift to others, if only to bring them a smile .
~ ~ C ~ ~
John Cali
You’re most welcome, Conshana. And thank YOU for being a part of this great group of folks.
Helen Behd
Thank you so much, just what we all need to hear as we leave the old world behind and usher in a new year and a new world. Everything is sacred. Here’s to seeing everything as a miracle. Much love to you and Chief Joseph.
John Cali
Thank you very much, Helen.
Love,
John
Rene
Thank you John, Spirit and Susan!! The little girl at the start, what a beautiful soul!! One of the millions of our modern day teachers. Along with all the children in our recent tragedy. They all have a lesson to teach us. All we have is the NOW. You make what you want of it or,,,,not. It’s always our choice.
Love and Peace to All
John Cali
Thanks so much, Rene.
I completely agree with you — all we have is now, this present moment. It took me many years to learn that. Once we live only in the moment, our entire lives change for the better.
Love,
John
Micki
This video is great reminder to us all, that we are all very blessed with things that we tend to take fro granted. I am so grateful to be in this time, to share with others and care for those around me.
May 2013 be everything you want, need and wish for John and to all the friends that read and participate in this wonderful forum.
Take care John, love and hugs and of course HAPPY NEW YEAR 🙂
Micki
John Cali
Thank you very much, Micki! Happy New Year to you too!
Love & hugs,
John
Robin Becker
Very beautiful video! Thanks so much for sharing that. Everything John and Spirit stated resonates with me on this topic. I use the word appreciate instead of gratitude..I have a special notebook where I write all my appreciation. Last night I was summing up this past year alone on what to appreciate. I thought it would be short and sweet because this past year I was being a support system for my younger brother who was dealing with some very big and difficult experiences. I was surprised how once I got into that feeling of appreciation..I ended up easily writing pages and pages of appreciation. True, heart felt appreciation. I realized there are many times when life can seem like a kick in the pants..but even through times that appeared to be very dark, I could easily list many things to appreciate. Sometimes something can happen that seems bad or an unwanted change..yet as time passes and the dust settles, there is so many things to appreciate or feel gratitude about. That is the key– all about where we chose to put our focus.
I feel so much gratitude and appreciation for being here at a time our beautiful planet and souls are going through such magnificent changes..it is very exciting to know what we know now while it all is occurring. So much to celebrate.
And as always, I appreciate coming here and sharing with John and Spirit and so many other leading edge thinkers. I feel so blessed.
Happy New Year to all ♥ I am expecting 2013 to be spectacular for us all.
Love and light,
Robin
John Cali
Thanks very much, Robin.
I also prefer the word “appreciation” to “gratitude.” There’s a different energy between the two.
I think that’s a great exercise we all would do well to follow — making a list of all we have to be grateful for, to appreciate in our lives.
As you said, there is much to celebrate.
Happy New Year!
Hugs,
John
jerry
Thanks for this video, John. I needed the reminder to look at things as a child again, and again, and again.. hahaha.
May each moment be the first!
Hugs,
Jerry
John Cali
You’re most welcome, Jerry!
Happy New Year!
Hugs,
John
Sarah
What a beautiful video, I was really touched by it. There is so much to be grateful for, so much goodness and beauty in the world. My son goes to special school and at Christmas they put on a concert (Dr Who themed!). Every single child had a role to play, regardless of whatever challenges they faced. The staff at the school are prime examples of the goodness that is all around. So patient and loving and kind, shining examples to any human being.
My son and I sponsor a little boy in Senegal. The sponsorship money helps to build schools, teach farming skills, buy crops etc. Its a great way to introduce Milo (my son) to the concept and practice of gratitude.
John Cali
Thank you, Sarah, for your comments.
Susan
Thanks, John, for choosing to share this video! It was a gift of Spirit sent to me and one that I truly needed to see again, today — Guess that’s how the Universe works…
John Cali
Thank YOU, Susan, for sending me the video. What a powerful new way to see this beautiful world of ours!
Hugs,
John
Mikala St. Germain
I’m not sure I am ready to express this in words, but I am so very grateful the old cycle is gone, is in the past, and we can let it go. I am grateful that Creator and Spirit have spoken and told us that it is all up to us and we are responsible for making our world that vision that we desire. The new path is to take it upon ourselves to plant seeds of joy, of support, of help, of brotherhood and sisterhood to all that moves around us. It is the way to change the old into a most beautiful world. We cannot rely on organizations, government, big business and so forth. We each can do at least one thing, and that is to give light and love. We can, without personal identification, put a bag of groceries on someones front step who hasn’t enough to eat. We can buy or make warm mittens, or hats for little ones who are so very cold walking to school in the winter, WE can change the lives of people who feel no hope, Those simple things will grow exponentially, until all understand that it is up to each one of us to live in gratitude for each day and the abundance Spirit has given us. To be thankful for the gifts we have been given, and to share those gifts with our fellow man until ALL live in that gratitude, love and light.
How can we not be grateful for the opportunities to live as a Divine Human?
John Cali
Thank you very much, Mikala, for sharing your compassionate perspective. As you said, there is much we can do invidually. We can share our gifts with those beautiful souls who feel so lost and hopeless.
deborah
What a beautiful video. Thanks for sharing. Everyday I find something to be grateful for. Some days it seems difficult to find something but once I start I find many things and it lifts my mood. I’ve been doing this for several years now and I’m much happier and don’t have much anxiety anymore. And, until just now I’d nerver really thought about that. I believe there is much more good in the world than bad, we only hear about the bad though. I see good people doing good things almost every day and I’m grateful for that.
Have a wonderful day.
John Cali
Thanks very much, Deborah. Happy New Year!
Silvy
Ah! I needed this message now … Thank you Spirit!!!! And John, thank YOU! Have a wonderful New Year or I should say a wonderful New “Now”.
Happy 2013 to ALL my Soul friends from this blog =) xoxo
John Cali
Thanks very much, Silvy. Happy New Year! And Happy Now! 🙂