A healing tincture
or, a ceremony of prayer
Alongside Presence and Simplicity, another saving grace for life as a sensitive bean is Gratitude and Prayer.
Gratitude for me is a ritual of thankfulness not just for the big stuff, but for the little stuff, and mostly, for the bits and bobs of life that I take for granted.
Prayer for me is a ceremony in quiet reverence to a greater force I will never fully comprehend, where I offer supplications for healing, peace, balance, change.
I know that gratitude works because I feel it working. I know that prayer works because I see it working.
Real, deep, devotional gratitude for what I see, touch, taste, or feel is like a healing tincture for my worried soul. It takes me away from the noise and into a place of stillness that has no beginning and no end. It is a lifting of my heart, an expansiveness of being, a dropping of my shoulders. Gratitude’s sister, prayer, is a connector between all souls. A bypassing of the barriers that hold us in separation. A quiet place of reverence to communicate with the All That Is and feel the power that lies deep at our core.
Gratitude for the little everyday things looks like this. Last night I was grateful for the pillow that held my weary head as I tumbled into bed. I sank into it, revelled in its softness and coolness, and sent a thought of ‘thanks’ to its inventor as I drifted into slumber. Alongside it, I prayed that those with nowhere to sleep be lifted out of their struggle and into the arms of comfort.
This morning I hugged a tree, and felt just so very thankful for its existence. Imagining my world without these giant beings of stillness makes me shudder and I hugged it even tighter. My prayer was to all trees and to all humans, that we would come to know just how intertwined we are and remember that without trees, humans don’t exist.
This afternoon I thanked my kidneys for being the powerhouses of the body that they are, and I marvelled at my body for the incredible organic masterpiece that it is, even with its aches, its malfunctions, and its failings. What an incredible feat of engineering. Rising through the gratitude was a prayer of healing to all those who are struggling with their own human suit.
When I see a thought of gratitude I see an immediate lifting of energy into a higher state. I see a subtle change in my body as it begins to realign with peace. I see a soft opening of the heart and waveforms of light being released. With prayer I see power. I see the gathering of Angels, the gathering of light beings, a beam of light from the consciousness of one into the consciousness of all. A subtle shift in the cosmic field we reside in.
Some days this practice is so very easy. Other days, when engulfed with overwhelm and the agony of worldly suffering, not so much. But it is here, even in the lowest of moments, that this practice offers its greatest medicine. A soft cool breeze on my teary face feels like the I have the riches of the world at my feet. A prayer fills my hurting heart with the gentleness of a Mother’s whisper of safety and love. In these moments, just breathing, and finding gratitude for a soft touch, a beautiful smile, a kindness; and then, speaking a wish for the world to know light, to know peace, to know love, is an astonishing force to be reckoned with. Gratitude and Prayer through the heart and mind is a gathering of light that has the ability to set the world on fire, and have us all rise rise like phoenixes from the ashes. The very light that leads us step by step towards a world reborn.