Thank you for this beautiful post. It is heartbreaking and carries a poignant message.

This universe makes no promises to anyone. The one thing that is for certain however, is our own death. In fact, taking that even further, we can also expect the death of our own sun, our solar system, our
galaxy. Everything is impermanent, even our universe. Yet, when death appears we are usually taken off guard, off balance. We are like, “how can this happen?”

However, knowing that death is a given certainly doesn’t diminish the grief that accompanies it. To me, there would be no greater grief than experiencing the loss of a close family member; spouse, child, dad, mom, sibling, or close friends.

Grief and gratitude are two different things. Feeling grief, being consumed by grief, drowning in grief is often so overwhelming it is impossible to see any sign of gratitude anywhere near us. In fact, it is sometimes impossible to even imagine a time when things were or could ever be “normal” again.

In the beautiful book, “The Five Invitations” by Frank Ostaseski he says, “Death is not waiting for us at the end of a long road. Death is always with us, in the marrow of every passing moment, a secret teacher hiding in plain sight, helping us to discover what matters most in life. ”

Living with the knowledge that death can take you or anyone you love at any moment is a great gift of death. Imagine living every day as though it would be the last day you spend with the person you love the most. Imagine how you would hold them, look in their eyes, tell them how much you appreciate them, how much you love them. Yes, Frank is right, that is, death can be our “secret teacher”.

When your or your partner leave your bodies – one of you will be left behind. At that moment, I suppose that finding gratitude may be very difficult as you go through the very personal process of grieving.

However, stopping to breath, stopping to feel your pain and remember the time you and your partner walked this planet together is something to truly cherish. To know that a part of you died with your partner and that your love walked to the other side with them and helped them transition is something for which to be grateful.

Also, experiencing the very real raw pain as a reminder of your love and as a teacher is also something for which to be grateful as you prepare for your own death.

I am not looking forward to the day my love and I separate to death. It is something I think about everyday. I imagine that moment when one of us leaves, and I then move closely to my honey and take a deep breath for the life and love we now share, for this, I am grateful.

What a wonderful gift the Gratefulness team has shared this past week. You are certainly sharing the wisdom of Brother David and those who have contributed to this series of meditations. You have inspired me to slow down and appreciate the fullness of my life and the life on this planet – both animate and inanimate.

A quick thought on sharing. I believe that everything I’ve accumulated in this life material or otherwise is a gift to me from our universe.

None of my gifts are truly “mine” – they are part of the energy of the universe and are meant to be shared. In sharing these gifts, we actually create MORE energy. Positive, beautiful energy that adds to the incredible resonance of our world.

My experience has been that the more I share, the more the universe provides to me; allowing me to share again. Once we realize that no one is entitled to anything, no one is promised anything, we can begin to feel grateful. Sharing without expectations is one way to spread the joy and create more joy in all of our lives.

Another wonderful reflection. Beholding beauty allows us to “feel” the beauty we let in. We pause, we feel, we begin to see the essence of things. Wonderful. Slow down and listen and really pay attention.

This is a great meditation as I need to be reminded to stop running around without focus. Life passes by fast enough, this meditation allows me to slow down a bit and expand into this world, slow down and breathe, feel and appreciate.

Thank you for this wonderful post.

What a beautiful sentiment today. Learning to stop and appreciate everything around us, in us and our place within this world – our universe and our time in it, in our current form is a true gift.

We all get caught up in chasing things which we deem “important” – or at least we think it is, for now. When we are pursuing, chasing, running away from something or simply ignoring the beauty around us we are not “being”; we are actually separating ourselves from our world.

This practice today helps me focus and listen to the miracles which surround us, the miracle of our universe, the miracle of you, the miracle of me.

Thank you – for this, I am grateful.

Kristi, I love your writings. How true it is that it is very easy to get caught up in our daily challenges and forget that we are on this planet for such a short time – and letting our “troubles create a great deal of noise” for us. Distracting us, creating lots of self-talk, self-doubt and anxiety.

Practicing mindfulness or whatever else we may do to slow this world down a bit makes it easier for us to “see” the wonder and awe of this universe and our place in it. It would be a shame if we only started to look for our place and contemplate the wonders of our universe on our deathbed.

Without setting aside time for our practice, all we are doing is practicing distraction – making it much harder to really experience the wonder of it all. Carpe Diem.