I had a moment of gratitude this morning that literally brought me to tears. It was almost painful in its intensity. It doesn’t really matter what triggered it. What matters is that I had it and that in the moment I had a crystal clear vision that the Universe was telling me two things. 1) This is the way I am supposed to feel. This is the way we are all supposed to feel. And 2) that more of the same will lead to more of what I desire in life.
This is a very interesting experience to have had. First of all because it was a very spiritually intense moment but mainly because it wasn’t all that long ago that I mostly rejected the idea that the Universe could communicate to me in this way. Furthermore, in the not-to-distance past, I would have questioned #2 with the perspective that it was just my mind reminding of the things I’ve read (i.e., The Secret, Abraham-Hicks, etc.). However, right now is not the past and my yoga and my Journey have both brought me to a very different state of mind and set of beliefs about the Universe.
I have come to believe that this life is primarily a cycle of tests that the Universe lays in front of us to either learn from or whither from. We grow spiritually by facing these tests head on, finding meaning in them, learning from the experience of them and the meaning we find in them and then feeling grateful for having had the opportunity to not only successfully face them but more importantly, for simply being alive to face them in the first place.
Albert Schweitzer said it best:
To educate yourself for the feeling of gratitude means to take nothing for granted, but to always seek out and value the kind that will stand behind the action. Nothing that is done for you is a matter of course. Everything originates in a will for the good, which is directed at you. Train yourself never to put off the word or action for the expression of gratitude.
