Rampage of Gratitude

A few days ago two friends and myself were sitting in my living room, enjoying snacks and communication. I say communication, because one of them  has come down with a form of ALS that affects her speech, which is no longer understandable. So she has a pad, sort of an etch-a-sketch device, which helps.
   
Also, when I suggested she look into the computer driven speech device that Stephen Hawking used, she showed us an app on her phone where she could type and it would be converted to speech. So that also was a good tool.
   
Both are limiting, but that didn't limit her enjoyment of our afternoon. My other friend later asked me how we could bring more smiles and happiness into our friend's life. In addition to the ALS diagnosis, her husband recently suffered a health crisis and is still in a rehab facility. So she is home alone. We plan to create another opportunity for the three of us to get together, perhaps for an event.
   
I felt my own disappointments fade away in our friend's presence. How frustrating and limiting to suddenly be unable speak clearly.  We participated in Chorale together, but that’s no longer possible for her. And something like ALS can progress.
   
The last few months I’ve been feeling somewhat depressed, living on my own and having to deal with the maintenance mode of life alone, with no supportive partner to share the day’s events, as well as the health, financial and home management challenges. It’s just me, pretty much 24/7.
   
Then I’m reminded to clear out cobwebs of negativity and connect with the God force within. All my petty concerns pale as I realize how much I have to be grateful for.
   
Science of Mind magazine’s recent issue contains “Daily Guides” based on  Rev. Dr. Michele Medrano’s “Rampage of Gratitude,”  which includes a brief essay, inspirational quotes by Ernest Holmes and others, and an affirmation. She listed so many things to be grateful for, and many of them applied to me.     Gratitude for Love: “...when we consciously remember WHO loves us, and whom WE love, and  feeling gratitude for it, we get the gift of love and the grace of gratitude at the same time. We are blessed, and we are a blessing.”
   
I know that my children, although living distant from me, are loving and caring. My son calls me often on the way home from work, and we all enjoy Skype calls, plus occasional visits. I have a loving place to go for the holidays, and for that I am grateful.

Another: Gratitude for my Body. “Body obsession is rampant in our culture,” she writes. I know I've been guilty of that. The obsession is because we FEAR some terrible disease or rejection for imperfection. Giving doses of deep gratitude for our body helps us to stay healthy.
  
Holmes says: “Every time we think of our body, we should think of it as our spiritual body. Think of every organ, action, function of our physical body as being pure and perfect Spirit, and think of God as being is us and around us and through us.”  I am grateful for the good health that I enjoy, and especially for my rapid healing from two recent falls.
   
There are so many things to be grateful for ...our gifts, talents, joys, abundance, humor, beauty, music, nature, successes, friendships, our soul and even our failures, challenges, enemies, pains and grief, as we learn and grow from them. They all contribute to who we are.
   
With Thanksgiving approaching, we can be thankful for life itself, for the opportunity to be here, to be expressing ourselves on this plane of consciousness. We can affirm:
  
“The good of the universe is abundantly present in my life right now. I see it, I claim it and I accept it.”
   
And so it is.