Robert Odom, the author of YOUR COMPANION TO 12 STEP RECOVERY, is a metaphysical counselor, lecturer, and teacher with more than 20 years in recovery. He is a student of New Mexico history and, appropriately, makes his home in both Santa Fe, and Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Learning how to love is a process that involves remembering who we really are. The bottom-line reality is that all life on the planet is a manifestation of Spirit in physical bodies. All life is Spirit, and Spirit is sacred; therefore, all life is sacred.
Gratitude involves taking time to consciously appreciate the complexity of life. Often we can get so busy “doing” that there is little time left for living. Sometimes we can only be grateful for obvious blessings while we wind up resenting our pain.
We live in a culture that programs us to expect instant gratification and to devalue processes that involve large amounts of time and close attention. It is easy for us to read a few books, go to several workshops, and expect immediate enlightenment. It is a mentality of “microwave spirituality.” In learning how to love, we must embrace all of life’s experiences, both the horrible and the sublime. So often, our greatest spiritual knowing comes cloaked in confusion and pain. It is truly a challenge to become grateful for our pain as well as our joy.
Being grateful for our lessons and for our experiences is actually a way of responding to life, flowing from a full heart. Being grateful, or as we say in 12 Step programs, adopting an “attitude of gratitude,” keeps us in touch with our interconnectedness. It reminds us that we are all part of the great spiral of creation, on a spiritual journey back to the Source. Everything on that journey is a part of bringing us closer to Spirit by making us aware of our own divinity.
We have a spiritual responsibility to be consciously grateful because that energy’s frequency flows from us and assists in our own healing, our brother’s and sister’s healing, and ultimately the healing of the planet, our EarthMother.
Take some time to be alone out in nature. Quietly watch the ants, the birds, the leaves in the bushes and trees. All the life forms are unself-conscious in their enjoyment of the world. The ants have more than enough sand to build their hills; the birds have an abundance of twigs for nests; there is far more than enough sunlight for the leaves to produce food for the plants. While you are out there in nature, remember that you, too, are a part of this wonderful, intricate web of life. It is such a glorious blessing to be alive in this wonderful place. Take a deep breath, open your heart, and remember that gratitude is God appreciating the gift of Itself to the world.
Be consciously grateful for every person, place, and thing that helps you learn to love.