Gratitude is the Attitude
My Dear Friends...
Each morning when I awaken I try to remember to say a little prayer. It is the same prayer that I have been saying to myself for many years now.
Thank you, God, for another day, and another chance to
be my Highest Self. Thank you for this life and for the wonder of this moment. Thank you for everything that has ever happened to me, is happening now, and ever will happen. For all of it has produced
the perfection of this next breath, and the glory of Who I Am now going to be. Amen, and amen.
It is good for me to begin each day with gratitude. And then, as I get into the shower, I break into song. Usually, Everything's Goin' My Way, which is, I believe, from the Rodgers and Hammerstein
musical, Oklahoma! The lyrics are...
Oh, what a beautiful morning!
Oh, what a beautiful day!
I've got a wonderful feeling
everything's goin' my way...
Oh, what a beautiful day!
Then, when I get to the mirror to shave and comb my hair, I smile. That's right, I throw a big smile at myself! Do know that you are physically unable to hold onto negative energy of any kind if you
smile? Smiling disintegrates it. Do you know it's impossible to remain grouchy if you sing? Singing disallows it! Do you know that you cannot express true anger when you are expressing true gratitude?
The two are mutually exclusive.
Use this simple little formula and you will start off every day with a mindset that will change what occurs in the hours that follow. This is important to understand. What you experience in your life
is a direct result of the energy you call in.
Here's something else I try to do each morning that has profoundly affected my quality of life. I try to read or write something sacred and holy. Something
meaningful and important. Something soft and warm and wonderful. Something about God and Life and Love, and how to experience all three at just the highest level ever. Then I put down my reading or writing
and I take a moment to quietly forgive. I forgive everybody for everything. And I include myself in that forgiveness circle.
This is my five step formula for opening each day:
- Gratitude
- Song
- Smile
- Sacred Nourishment
- Forgiveness
Not necessarily in that order. But touch all five if you can. If you do, I dare you to walk out of the bedroom in a dark space or a bad mood or in a grumpy state of mind. Dare you, dare
you, double dare you! You can't! You won't! It's impossible!
Now I want you to do two more things and your relationship with your Significant Other will become once again the territory for bliss and growth
and love abounding that it was at the beginning and was meant to be always.
- Think of your Beloved Other, whoever is closest to you right now, and prepare a present for that person in your heart and
mind, offering it to him or her before the day is out. One every day.
- Close each day with a recital to your Beloved: "What I am grateful to you for this day...", and offer a verbal list of
those items, describing each in detail.
Now I want you to do three final things each day and your whole life will change, not just your morning or your relationship.
- Move through your day knowing that you walk with God and that God walks
with you, and that another human being is going to be coming to you this day for whom you will have a gift in your hands. You do not know what that gift is right now, but it doesn't matter. You will
know when God brings that person to you.
- Do something courageous and outrageous in the next 12 hours, and do one courageous/outrageous thing every day. Then reach out and get whatever life has to offer
this day. Take it with gusto, for it is your gift from life!
- Be good to yourself this evening. Give yourself some small treat, whatever it may be, and pamper yourself in this way, saying "thanks" to
you and to God for the wonderful experience of living fully this day.
This is my Ten Step Method for Achieving Daily Happiness. I don't worry about setting long range goals or meeting daily objectives
or driving projects forward and using my time wisely or any of those things we hear about from motivational speakers and success trainers. I just use Gratitude, Giving, Getting, and God - the Four G's
- as my pathway to fulfillment and joy, and they take me there every time.
~ Neale Donald Walsch
What's Happening
We have graduates of our Life Education Program who are out in the world committed to giving people back to themselves through the New Spirituality and the messages of CwG. We want to let you know about
these opportunities around the world that are available to you.
Karolina Kempe is a graduate of the Life Education Programme hosted by Neale and his staff at the ReCreation Foundation in Ashland, Oregon.
A sincere welcome to a full day experiential workshop Saturday 13th of October 2007, Lund, Sweden inspired
by Conversations with God!
On
this day, we'll explore questions like: How can I go where
I want to go? Where do I find the courage to follow my heart?
What do I want and how can I find out which my intentions
are? How do I create balance and connection with myself? Come
and experience the getting together with like-minded people,
find a deeper connection with yourself and explore the power
of thought and your own intentions in life. The
workshop will be held in Swedish. For more information,
please visit www.karolina.am.
From
a New Member of The Group of 1000
The first line is from a book of Eckhart Tolle
"Spirituality has nothing to do with what you believe, but everything to do with your state of consciousness."
 So many times in life, we get tangled in our belief structure. When someone is taking the leap and bound to find enlightenment, they sometimes get so caught up in what to believe. During that process,
they begin to in essence create their own religion or set of laws that they want to go by. While there is nothing wrong with having a belief system, it's important to realize that every aspect of life
is God. God is expressing love through everything in life. For God to love anything and everything; God must love not only your belief structure but also everyone else in the world. So if you step back
and really contemplate this, you might come to the conclusion that a belief structure is no longer the most important thing in your life. Living a life without judgment on others or yourself for that
matter will help you in becoming an enlightened being. To live a life with nothing but love and living in this moment will be so beautiful that words cannot even reach the tip of the ice burg. God is
everywhere, loving and expressing in a million different forms at any moment. Love each moment for exactly that, a moment in which you are a living being experiencing every aspect of God.
~Written by Donald J Welshimer
It's the Soul's Journey
If you are like me and you've been studying the messages of Conversations with God for a while, you have found that much about life is explained in a clear way that speaks to you and repeats what you
may have discovered deep in your heart, and seeing it printed on those pages has been a wonderful validation of your inner knowing.
One of the most interesting teachings I've found in CwG has to do with the soul's journey.
"The soul -
your soul- knows all there is to know all the time. There's nothing hidden to it, nothing unknown. Yet knowing is not enough. The soul seeks to experience...it is your soul's only desire to turn its
grandest concept about itself into its greatest experience." (CwG, Book 1, pg 22).
The soul seeks to experience through choice. It was quite illuminating to begin to realize that as my soul seeks its experience of itself, I am indeed choosing my path in each moment.
In thinking about this concept, it seems natural to wonder how it is that the soul chooses what it chooses to experience...I mean, I can understand the good, and expansive and uplifting stuff...but what
about the difficult and painful and tragic stuff?
When I think about the calamities and tragedies in the world, why do souls choose to experience through these? We have been taught through the generations that it was God allowing these difficulties,
and in the case of natural disasters, they have often been called, "acts of God." But now we realize that the soul chooses these experiences, for the purpose of knowing itself through them.
But why the tragic stuff?
"Each soul is a Master-though some do not remember their origins or their heritages. Yet each creates
the situation and the circumstance for its own highest purpose and its own quickest remembering-in each moment called now.
Judge not, then, the karmic path walked by another. Envy not success, nor pity
failure, for you know not what is success or failure in the soul's reckoning. Call not a thing calamity, nor joyous event, until you decide, or witness, how it is used. For is a death a calamity
if it saves the lives of thousands? And is a life a joyous event if it has caused nothing but grief?" (CwG Book 1, pg 33).
I had been working with this teaching a lot when I had an interesting experience that spoke directly to this concept.
If there were ever a circumstance that led me to wonder about a soul's choice, it would be that of a person developing Alzheimer's disease. These days, it seems like there isn't a family, or extended
family that isn't touched by this disease somewhere. And I have wondered why a soul would choose this progressively debilitating disease...what is the opportunity here...it doesn't look like there is
even anything really going on inside ultimately...how does this serve the soul?
A few years ago, while visiting a close friend, she took me along on her weekly visit to her mother, who was in a care facility for Alzheimer's patients. This facility was a remarkable place that was
set up as a community of cottages, and the cottage we visited had about 10 women living in it, all with Alzheimer's, or some form of dementia.
We found my friend's mother, who I will call Sally, lying on the couch in the common room. She was small, frail, disheveled, mumbling incoherently, but did seem to recognize my friend intermittently.
We took her for a short walk, where she scooted with tiny steps holding both our hands. Quickly worn out, we led her back to her room where she laid down.
My friend began to read to her, hoping she would fall asleep. While I was sitting there, listening to my friend read, and watching Sally lying on the bed, I found myself wondering about the choice this
lovely soul was making, and suddenly I realized that Sally was beginning to communicate with me. I could feel her talking to me in my heart.
She began to explain to me what was really going on for her through the Alzheimer's experience. She said that she was indeed completely present, but she was entirely focused on the past. She said that
this is why very often people with Alzheimer's will have moments of appearing lucid regarding the past.
Sally said that she was going back over her life, retrieving aspects of herself that she had left behind. She said that every time we deny ourselves, don't speak our truth, give up being who we are,
we actually leave an aspect or a "piece" of ourselves in that moment. Therefore, she was taking time before making her transition to go back and retrieve these aspects or pieces of her self
in preparation for her transition. She said that there are so many people with Alzheimer's now because so many of our senior generation went through the war and gave up many aspects of themselves through
that experience. They felt that they had to give up who they were for many reasons. And many people are now choosing to go back and retrieve these "pieces" before they leave this life. So it
appears to those around them that they are not here, and indeed they are not, from this perspective.
Sally told me how important it is to speak my truth, be who I am and live from this place. I was astonished and encouraged all at the same time!
I thanked Sally (on a heart level) for sharing her experience with me. As my focus came back to the room around me, I noticed that Sally was asleep, so my friend and I left her there, and we went into
the dining area to find Sally's caregiver, to let her know we were leaving.
When we walked into the dining area, there were two tables with four women sitting at each table. I looked at them and each one appeared to either just be staring or mumbling incoherently. But from
my inner eye, I could see above each table where each woman, on a soul level, was very present, very active, assisting and supporting each other in their process. In fact, one of them said that they
had all agreed on a soul level to come together at this time to do this work in support of one another.
I was amazed! On the outer, physical level, here were eight women, appearing out of control, in a stupor, essentially lifeless, and on a soul level; they were vibrantly alive, actively doing the retrieval
work Sally had been talking about!
I felt so encouraged and when I told my friend about this experience, she cried and said she felt so much better about her mother, what she was going through and why.
I realized that the message in Conversations with God was playing itself out right here in front of my eyes...
"Each soul is a Master-though some do not remember their origins or their heritages. Yet each creates
the situation and the circumstance for its own highest purpose and its own quickest remembering-in each moment called now.
Judge not, then, the karmic path walked by another. Envy not success, nor pity
failure, for you know not what is success or failure in the soul's reckoning."
If we can remember that the soul always knows what it's doing, why it is choosing what it is choosing, maybe we can all be encouraged when we look at seemingly hopeless conditions. What it looks like
on the outside may be quite different from what's happening on the deep, inner, higher levels.
There is no part of the soul's journey that exists outside the realm of God, for it is God expressing and experiencing and re-membering itself. Knowing this truth may not always explain the why, but
it can bring peace in the moment, if we choose it. Blessings!
(Joanna Gabriel is the Director of Education and Worldwide Communications for the ReCreation Foundation. You
may contact her at: joanna@cwg.org )
Messages of Conversations with God:
A 3-Day Experience
When you read Conversations with God, did your heart whisper,
“Finally, in print what I always knew was true...”?
Have you wanted to discuss and ask questions about the messages of CwG?
Do you want to meet others in your own community who have also had life-changing experiences after reading CwG?
Would you like some practical tools for using the messages of CwG in your life?
Would you like to devote a weekend to immerse yourself in the study and celebration of Who You Are in relationship to CwG?
You could take an important step by gifting yourself with a 3-day experience that will lift you up toward a greater sense of Who You Are and a deeper connection with your creator
within.
Join us: (advance registration required)
Portland, OR: Oct. 5, 6, 7 - Hilton Portland & Executive Tower, 921 SW 6th Ave, Portland, OR
To register for the Portland Event click here
Seattle, WA: Oct. 12,13,14 - Homewood Suites by Hilton, 6955 Fort Dent Way, Tukwila, WA
To register for the Seattle Event click here
Click here for more information on any of these events
or call Will at (352) 442-2244. |
Questions & Comments from Readers
Dear Neale,
In CwG, God says we can't define God. If not, how do we know that God is love? Also, why did God want to know Himself? I have gotten used to the idea that God is love and light
and truth and abundance, etc. But to some people, love is defined differently. If the only love they've known is limited and self-serving, how can they know that love is understanding and
forgiveness and non-judgment? My brother-in-law thinks that love is disciplining, that God is a disciplinarian. He is comfortable with that- probably because his father beat him. How do you
tell people that love does not punish, that unconditional love does not force someone to anything by punishing them?
~Tracey, from E-mail.
Dear Tracey, Let's go from the top. In CwG, God says that "Love is all there is." God also says that God is All That Is. Therefore, God is love. Everything in our heart tells us
this, too, by the way, and the heart is never wrong. I did not interpret the book to say that God cannot be defined. I believe what the book says is that God cannot be limited to any one
definition or descriptionand by that limiting means be so defined. That certainly sounds true to me, though it does not negate or invalidate the description of God as "love."
As to your second question, CwG says that God wanted to know Himself experientially. The same, says the book, is true of me and you. It is one thing to think of yourself or know yourself
as, shall we say, compassionate, or loving, but it is quite another thing altogether to experience yourself as these things. If you have no one to love, you can "know yourself" as
loving all you want, but it is not the same thing as actually loving someone through action in the here and now. God wished to experience Itself as what It really was, and so the whole universe
was created. Why? For the sheer joy of it, Tracey! For the joy of self expression.
Question three: The American Heritage Dictionary defines "punishment" as "a penalty imposed for wrong-doing." According to CwG, there is no such thing as "right" and "wrong." Therefore, "wrongdoing" is
nonexistent, and so, too, "punishment." Most humans cannot accept this concept. They cannot understand how it could be so. Yet would a loving grandmother spank her toddling grandchild
for breaking a dish or spilling her milk? Of course not.
God is very much like that loving grandmother. And we are very, very much like that toddler in our understandings and actions. And, as you point out, if the only love a person has known
is limited and self-serving, it will be difficult to grasp, much less accept, the concept of a love which is unconditional.
As CwG points out, most people fall into this lot; most have never known a love which is without condition. And most people judge God to be operating on earthly norms. Yet to know God one
must imagine a being much larger, much grander than anything one has seen in this life. One must not assign God earthly attributes, earthly understandings and earthly limitations, but rather,
qualities that are unknown in our experience.
With regard to God, one must accept the possibility that there is something we do not know, the knowing of which could change everything.
You see, this is our chief problem: we think we already know everything there is to know about God. And so any description of God which does not fall within our current understandings is
automatically rejected as "false," "wrong," and "blasphemy." Yet if there is such a thing as blasphemy, it would be to assert, announce and declare that we know
everything there is to know about God, that our beliefs about God are the right beliefs, and that anyone who does not accept our beliefs is going straight to hell.
How do you tell someone with a limited understanding, based on their limited experience of real love, about the unconditional love of God? You don't. You don't tell them anything about it.
You demonstrate it.
~Love, Neale.
If you would like to send a comment or a question to Neale
here at the Weekly Bulletin, you may do so by addressing an
email to: weeklybulletinresponse@CwG.org
Please note that because of the volume of mail that we receive, it is possible your letter will not get printed here. However, we do our best to see that all letters get a response, if not directly from Neale, then from a CwG Foundation staff person, or LEP participant.
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Looking for other readers of the CwG material in your area?
Do you have a CwG Study Group in your area? Visit our website: ReCreation Foundation :: connect to find out more about Study Groups and also to see if there is a current Study Group in your area.
Alyse Rynor has been our CwG Study Group coordinator for several years and when asked about this program she said, "Study Groups are a wonderful way to gain greater understanding of and to become more fully immersed in CwG . It is an absolutely GREAT way to connect with others who share the love for these powerful concepts! Study Groups are supportive and a wonderful way to make new friends who are walking a similar path."
You may contact Alyse at studygroups@cwg.org.
Please Note: The ReCreation Foundation does not endorse or specifically support groups, or individual members of groups, personal interests, personal endeavors, political beliefs or business ventures.
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