I was asked: Do you do gratitude?

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I do it two ways.

In the morning I start out the day handwriting a Vision Page — which could as easily be called a Creation Page. 

The Page is simultaneously a celebration of what’s been created in my experience and an evocation of what I’d like to create in my life to come.

Normally I write it just before breakfast, though sometimes it’s out in our backyard, wherever. It’s a single page composed of two parts, well a third if you consider the opening . . . 

It goes like this:

1. I address the Page to my favorite pet name for the divine (which is OmJah at the moment):

OmJah! 

— or —

Hey O 

— or if I’m feeling formal —

Dear One

Something like that. It varies. 

Why do I start off this way?

It feels intimate, as though I’m addressing a sublime aspect of myself that is also greater than myself.

2. Then I riff on whatever is good, whatever is jazzing me that day. 

Sometimes it’s just sloppy lists with dashes in between. So many good things, so little time — dashes get you there quicker!

Sometimes it’s a paragraph or two about an enjoyable/meaningful moment . . . connection . . . thing . . . or event . . . 

Sometimes it goes like this: 

“I’m lovin’ that my forever friend Vegs was here this weekend. I’m lovin’ the flow of awesomeness streaking through our lives . . . ” 

Most often this segment is a quarter to half a page. 

(Though at times I’ll get caught up in the process and the whole Page becomes a lengthy hyper-appreciation sequence leaping from enthusiasm to enthusiasm.) 


3. Then I pivot to what I want to create in my experience. 

This segment is all about articulating what I’m seeking to create.

It could be clarifying a long-term vision or it could be focusing on what feels essential for that day. 

It might simply be words that speak to what I want in my life:

Wonder!  

Connection!  

Lightheartedness! 

Often I get specific. As detailed as I can be.

Or it might be something I’m troubled by. If so, I’ll talk about that first and then wander into what it will feel like to move past it, or resolve it, even asking for possible solutions to present themselves.

It’s all free form. Whatever feels right as I’m doing it. Sometimes mad incoherent scrawl is called for.

At the end of every day I practice Love-Appreciation meditation:
My second practice relating to gratitude is my nighttime meditation. 

Just as I do in the morning, I frame gratitude as Appreciation-Love, which feels more expansive to me, less servile, less groveling for scraps of goodness. 

My meditation practice has evolved into a sort of zazen meets Abraham Hicks rampage of appreciation. 

I get into a Love and Appreciation space and then let myself float there . . . and whatever arises in my consciousness I appreciate, even if only some small aspect of it . . . 

The thought arising could be of a person, an issue, a thing, an experience. It could be good or bad or something entangled with both qualities. 

Whatever it is, it’s easy to hold some aspect of it in deep and perfect appreciation, because I’m already there, already feeling the love pulse undulate through me.

After an appreciative embrace of whatever arose, that thought drifts off and I’m back in the Appreciation-Love space. . . . it’s an undifferentiated place, suffused with warmth  . . . until something else arises . . . 

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