This morning, as I write this, I am back at home after a glorious week in a beautiful mountain hideaway. The home we stayed in was much bigger than my everyday home, with far more creature comforts than I am accustomed to. It would be easy to look around me this morning and see all of the ways in which this little house I live in is not quite good enough. I could choose to focus on the fact that it is really tiny, and there is no beautiful room that is exclusively mine, where I can write undisturbed and take long afternoon naps. I could also choose to focus on the fact that the kitchen is unfinished, and that although I live with a cabinet maker, I have no cabinets. I could totally focus on the steamy Florida weather and compare it negatively to the crisp mountain air. In short, if I wanted to, I could choose to be very discontented this morning.
But I'm not. Sure, there is much that could be done to this little cottage to make it more livable, but improvements mean projects, and projects are a wonderful way to create memories at the same time as we create beauty together. Sure, September in Florida is way too steamy for human comfort, and September this year seems to have bled, unwelcome, into October. But in just a matter of weeks, the weather here will be dry and cool, and while many people are freezing and lamenting the ice and snow, I will be wintering in Florida. I'm not discontented this morning because I made a choice a year ago to choose to have an attitude of grateful appreciation no matter what life may throw my way.
This week, I've been reading a book by Carolyn Myss, Invisible Acts of Power: Personal Choices That Create Miracles, in which she describes the acts of service associated with, and motivated by, each of the seven main chakras. In an earlier post, we talked about giving financial and creative support, which is an act of service powered by our second chakra. The attitude of grateful appreciation of which I speak today is a sixth chakra act, the chakra often called the Third Eye and associated with wisdom.
Having an attitude of grateful appreciation is a choice; the normal human response is to whine and complain and to see everything that is wrong with our world. We must actively choose to see our world with a grateful eye, and we must consciously cultivate a grateful attitude, particularly in the face of obstacles, sorrow, and pain. Myss describes one man, Jack, who managed consistently to keep an attitude of grateful appreciation. When asked how that was even possible, Jack explained:
"It's been easy for me to find something to appreciate every day. I gave up expectations. Tomorrow doesn't have to be better than today for me in order to have a good day. I don't have to have all my dreams come true in order for me to decide my life is good. I don't care if I don't drive a certain car or have everything I want. I don't want that much. So, it's easy to appreciate life. I took the burden away from God that he had to provide everything for me so I could be happy. Oddly enough, I'm happier now than when I lived possessed by having life turn out my way. People ask me, 'How come you're so happy?' as if I'm on to something. I just decided to choose to see good somehow in people and to appreciate what each day might have in store for me. It makes for a better life."
Like Jack, I choose to see my life as good, just as it is. But that doesn't stop me from imagining something different for myself. The trick is being able to visualize more while remaining contented with what is. It's not that hard really; like Jack, we just need to decide that it will be so.
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If you are reading this, I want to congratulate you for coming this far with me. Some people have stopped reading these posts, thinking that we are only spending imaginary money here, and they are waiting for me to start writing clues again. They don't realize that the clues have been cleverly hidden within the game itself. So if you are here, you are the kind of person who will dig deep to find the clues you seek. Good for you!
So let's spend some money:
$26,000 My share of proceeds from the Living Gratitude Conference, a day-long event featuring speakers specializing in gratitude, appreciation, and the Law of Attraction.
$ 2,500 Performing Arts Center building fund
$ 5,000 Wealth Building Account (Total $90,000)
$18,500 Vacation Home (Total $97,500)
Looks like I'm easily going to reach my goals before the game ends. How about you?
How will you spend your $26,000?
I, for one, have gathered far more than spending dreams from this game. My attitude about what I already have has become more of a thankful, grateful one and my quest is to attract more of what I seek. More powerfully, I have greater confidence in my ability to shape my own future just the way I have shaped it throughout this exercise. While we are earning and spending imaginary money here, it is from our human imaginations that we create reality.
ReplyDeleteBook royalties: $26,000
Wealth building account: $6,000
Vacation fund: $3,000
U of A schloarship fund: $5,000
Arkansas land purchase: $12,000