Dr. Sharron Stroud, the International Woman of the Year in 1991-92, has been a Jungian the-ologian, inspirational speaker, counselor, and teacher for 25 years. She is also the founder of the Center for the Celebration of Life, a spiritual center that teaches, heals, empowers, and supports causes such as World Peace, abused women and children, and aids; and The Challenge Center, a treatment center where paraplegic and quadriplegic individuals rebuild their lives. She has also served as president of the United Clergy of Religious Science.
I have discovered that gratitude is a way of being. When we become cognizant that everything in this life is a gift from the universe, and what we make of this thing called “life” is our gift back to the universe, our awareness is deepened. Gratitude is a tangible substance emanating from the person feeling this emotion. This substance permeates and pervades environments, clothing, and objects.
Gratitude as a “way of being” begins to manifest itself as the art and science of blessing. It makes sense when we realize that all life operates on a vibrational frequency of energy. The energy that we bring to life is the same energy that returns to us. This gets tricky when we don’t receive the results in life that we want. However, each experience redeems itself through our willingness to get its message and accept the gift it offers in its wake. This creates the space for miracles.
When I was a child, we lived on a half-acre of walnut trees, and I had a “special” tree that I could climb up and be cradled by. The tree was such a special friend, and I was so grateful to have its companionship. The tree always listened to my every thought and allowed me to climb her limbs so I could have a “bird’s-eye view” of the world around me. If I were hungry, she gave me her sweet meat, and I was satisfied. I could also make little boats from the walnut shells with a paper sail and a toothpick pole to hold it up with. Yes, the tree was my friend, and I was grateful.
When there was no external means of support in our family, my mother would hire migrant workers to shake the trees, and she and I would fill the gunny sacks full of the most beautiful walnuts on God’s green earth. The sale of the walnuts always provided us with the most glorious Christmas. At the time all of this was going on, I did not have an appreciation for my mother’s resourcefulness. Walnuts carry a dark skin around them that literally dyes one’s hands black! It has to wear off gradually, so the kids at school would make fun of me, and the teachers would tell me to go and wash my dirty hands!
Years later, I would reflect on this experience and feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude, for it taught me to look at what is available in the immediate moment, to bless it, and watch its essence increase for my good! It also gave me a deep compassion for those who need our understanding and love in difficult situations—and, most importantly, to see the love that generates the activity before us.
The “attitude of gratitude” has served me well during my 20 years in the ministry. The art of blessing comes through in our willingness to let go and surrender to the Angel of the Presence who carries Beauty in Her wings—realizing that something is operating under the surface, and we must trust the process.
