We Offer Gratitude, Peace And Love For The New Year

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Last week we shared a holiday photo of us wishing everyone Peace and Love. Now the New Year is upon us, and what we wish for all of you is for peace to spread, one relationship at a time.

We feel an enormous sense of gratitude for life, for the opportunities to grow and share, and for our relationships.

It’s hard to know what to write about gratitude without sounding clichéd. You’ve all read about how it’s better to give than to receive. A recent article from a neuroscientist tells how gratitude increases the pleasure of altruism. Another Washington Post article about training to support the dying offers the exercise of living a day as though it were your last day on earth.

So the question is how do we see the glass as half full? How do we accentuate the positive? Walk on the sunny side? Find the silver lining? (Let me count the clichés.)

For years, Phil couldn’t accept the goodness in relationships because of a mirage of perfection. What a potent source of dissatisfaction! Even though this same power of the imagination is the source that creates art and inventions, in our personal life it can destroy our happiness by focusing on what is missing.

The antidote is being present. By being present, we see what exists. We are brought back in touch with our senses. And even though we may be faced with chronic pain or a broken clutch or a raging boss, much in our life and our relationships is sheer joy. It may not scream for attention like a surprise party; instead, it may whisper. It may be the pattern that fallen leaves have made. But it is there by the tens and hundreds and thousands. Look. Listen. Breathe it all in deeply. Be grateful.

Let’s match actions to words & find opportunities to serve within our relationships & communities Click To TweetSo how can we go about spreading the realities of truth, beauty and goodness? How do we support their growth in our hearts and in the world?

It starts with a striving toward self-knowledge – the kind that helps us move away from a self-centered approach to interactions, and find a place of inclusiveness, of relatedness and service to others.

So, this is our call to action – feed your inner self so that you may feed those around you with that knowledge and that love.

It is time for all of us to match our actions to our words – to find service opportunities within our relationships, our communities, wherever we find ourselves, and to bring it, by example and sharing of this light, out into the world.

Take your thoughts and your words out into service to others. Listen to your brothers and sisters when they need to be heard. Notice them on the streets when they need to be seen. Practice being present with everyone. Celebrate together and embrace each other as often as you can.

Tell your friends!