Think fast. What are the first 5 things that you are instantly grateful for today?
Your family, your health, your wealth, food on the table and a roof over your head.
If your thoughts were somewhere along those lines, you’d be thinking like the majority of people.
The expression of personal gratitude is a wonderful place to start.
Yet, at some point, we need to transcend the love for ourselves and our next of kin – to all of kin. We need to reach beyond our familiar circle, all the way out to the unknown edges of the universe. Our heartfelt love must surpass what we know, what we touch, what we see and what we smell. It must extend, with wispy tentacles to every blade of grass and to the unseen flowers that bloom not for you, but to fulfill their life’s purpose.
Our gratitude must reach the whales and the depths of the waters in which they swim. It must broaden as it covers vast swaths of feral land, the very ground that deserves and desires to remain wild, untouched by man.
Consider the quantum field and know that wherever you intend your love to go, it shall get there in due time. You barely even need to think about it and BAM! – it happens. That heart-brain connection you can create with your thoughts is barely measurable, but you can feel it.
Keeping a gratitude journal
Nowadays, it is not uncommon to keep a journal of some sort. Sometimes they are kept for writing down life events that touched, restrained or allowed you to move on.
Other times they help you focus on the positive, as in keeping a gratitude journal. A handwritten journal which allows you to express appreciation for all you have in your life at any given moment. It’s best done daily.
As mentioned at the start, we tend to be intrinsically grateful for what we can immediately see in our surroundings, those of which are usually inside our homes.
But life, in many ways, begins outside, not in.
Our food comes from the ground and from the land. It basks under the sun, it drinks up the rain. The trees gift us with oxygen everyday, cleaning the air for our lungs to be healthy. The rain replenishes our drinking supply, a necessity of life. The insects pollinate flowers, from which “food” is born. And yet, for many of us it is not enough, for the simple reason that we do not readily relate to it. Not in the way that our far ancestors did, nor in the way that animals take it for granted that nature will always provide.
Nature always provides. Nature is always abundant. Only we fail to see this when there are storms, disasters and rising temperatures around the globe. Most of which, we are both the cause and suffer the effect.
The question is, how can we truly love the land, our sacred Earth, if we do not express gratitude for her everyday?
The secret to loving Earth
If you can express daily gratitude for yourself, you can also emanate a heartfelt gratitude for nature too.
All it takes is putting your energy in the right place.
Every night before you go to bed, start with one happy thought about something that happened outside today.
If you simply couldn’t make it outside, maybe it was the sun shining at the right angle through the window, illuminating your favorite houseplant. Perhaps it was the frenzied wind in your hair or the cold rain on your skin. Or it could have been a birdsong that reminded you to your childhood.
Every morning when you wake up, do the same thing. Think a joyous thought about nature. One that brings a smile to your face. A frolicking fox, a howling wolf, a hooting owl, a sneaky squirrel. Stay in the moment of appreciating nature, even before getting out of bed. For this, it’s best if and when you don’t wake up to an alarm.
Get outside to express gratitude for nature
Ask yourself and answer honestly, how many hours a week do I spend outside? How can I increase that amount?
You might also ask, why this is important. Because, the more time you spend outside, the more you can appreciate all that you see… and that which you can only imagine. It is that simple.
As often as you can, take every opportunity to be outdoors and view life from a fresh perspective. Notice when the nettles first emerge, take note of the raspberry leaves and see how it corresponds with the weather, the birds, the moles. Pick apples from an orchard and inhale their sweet scent. Get back to the land and reclaim your power to help nature flourish.
As you can see, we all have the ability to destroy.
We also have the ability to lift things up when we find them in a state of dilapidation.
What nature wants you to do today, is smile at a flower. Send kisses to the sun and the rain, give love and attention to animals and insects. Be kind to mother nature, and nature will be kind to you in return.
The next time you make a gratitude list, be sure to include your love for the Earth, that way, she knows she is loved too.
