Loving Grace, Living Love

Upon waking, many of us view the the coming day with trepidation.

Because of the natural human tendency to focus on what we fear or dislike, it is easy to unwittingly send a message of unease into the future that negatively impacts the quality of our day ahead. Restless nights spent worrying about what tomorrow holds for us as we stress over financial obligations, health concerns, and world events sets us into a path on unease, uncertainty, fear, and desparation.

Depression.

Although our lives are busy and frequently replete with challenges, they are also rich with joy and experiences worth savoring. My siblings and I have spent this past week emailing recollections of our childhoods. We have a wooden "Memory Box" for our Mom. In it, we add slips of paper with a fond memory on it. Mom can open the box and read through them whenever she likes, and we can continue to add to it it as we live on. The time will come when we'll gather and read through them together, sharing the love we have. I highly recommend this as a gift to a loved one.

It's nice to have so much clarity when looking back at happy, simple times. It brings a wonderful feeling of foundation and a certain bliss. I find it fascinating that "bliss" is only one vowel away from "bless".

I have a dear friend who emails me daily and always wishes me "Blessings on your day". Such a gift.

We can attract this natural bliss and into our lives by starting each day with a message of loving blessings. When we send love and blessings ahead to our day, that love manifests itself in our personal interactions, our professional endeavors, and our domestic duties.

Tasks and circumstances once made trying by our own anxieties can be transformed by our love, and we can find ourselves approaching life's subtle nuances with great affection.

I suggest that each morning, when we have cast off the fog of sleep, we take several deep, grounding breaths and reaffirm the love we have for ourselves. Think of the good that we do and how we are loved by others, be they spouses, family, friends, or pets. Say it out loud, whisper if you must, but say it with affirmation.

Speaking a loving, self directed blessing aloud enables us to access and awaken the reservoir of tenderness in our souls. Before we leave the comfortable warmth of our beds, we need to be sure to tell God that we are eager and ready to receive the blessings He has set aside for us. Then as we prepare to meet the day, we can visualize ourselves first saturated by and then surrounded with a warm and soft loving light.

This circle of light will soon widen until we unwittingly send it ahead into our day.

That circle of light is made of all those who love us, particularly God and our own selves.

Those of us who commute to work, can send a blessing to the roads upon which we will travel, our fellow commuters, and the geographical location of where we work as well as those who we will interact with. In turn, every single person we interact with, kind or cruel, brings to us a blessing.

If we have colleagues who arrive at our workplace before us, we can send them blessings of love in our hearts. Likewise, a day spent being a parent or addressing household chores can benefit from the sentiment that precedes us. Sending love ahead to everyone we will meet and everything we will do can ensure that our day is suffused with grace. The grace that God has always shared with us and asks that we share with one another.

It can be difficult to send love to those situations and individuals we deem particularly frustrating. However, that is not our call to make. After all, love and grace are each a gift that God has given us as a gift to share, and it each are most beautiful and powerful things.

Consider that the warmth and tenderness we project can change our life for the better as well as the life of the recipient.

If we send this loving grace forward each morning, we will exercise our power to control the ambiance of our existence and color our day with positivity.

If we send this loving grace forward throught our day, we will enforce our ability to have our world around us feel the same warm, encompassig light we awoke with.

If we send this loving grace to sleep with us each evening, we will sleep peacefully, allowing God to cradle us in His loving embrace and face each new day with the knowledge that everything is okay in God's light.

With love & light,

Rob