Today I am affirming a world in which people can learn to give and receive in balance, to feel the wonder of gifts and to trust that small kindnesses will indeed be repaid in full. As St. Francis says, “It is in giving that we receive.” I had an experience last night that shocked me to the core but also shed so much light (again) on just how much an addictive sense of lack and the perceived need for grasping works to turn a would-be giver away.
I gave anyway, but profound sadness surrounding this experience still lingers, mostly because I see how it plays out in our larger world. I will not invest my energy in this direction again, and that saddens me, because my heart saw so clearly the potential ripple effects of such an offering. Instead, the person received back what they gave, plus a bonus of much more, and yet the net gain for that person is a huge loss. Ingratitude severed what could have been an ongoing stream of freely offered blessings.
It reminds me of people who would themselves benefit from universal debt forgiveness, but who strongly oppose it because someone else might have just a little more debt forgiven than they do. Are we not all in this together?? Would not a hint of gratitude solve so many situations in our world? Ease so much pain? Prevent so many misunderstandings? When you give and someone expresses delight and gratitude, do you not want to shower that person with even more gifts? The Universe has feelings, too. That’s why an attitude of gratitude brings miracles. It’s even one of the Reiki (Universal Life Force Energy) Principles: “Just for today, do not worry, and be filled with gratitude.” It’s one of the Faery Rules: “No rudeness.” According to Meister Eckhart, “If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.”
And so, today, I say thank you. Thank you for this experience, as it has shown me much. Thank you for all the wonderful blessings that I have in my life, which encourage me to want to scatter such abundance around the world. Thank you for this person, and God/dess bless her and all the many like her, those people who ask and ask and demand, yet then, for whatever reason, sabotage their receiving of such gifts.
“I love you. I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you.”
Laura Bruno's Blog 
Posted by Laura Bruno ~ Attitude Of Gratitude | Shift Frequency on August 14, 2012 at 8:58 pm
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Posted by Gina Laverde on August 14, 2012 at 9:09 pm
Thank you for sharing. I like to think that you did have a positive influence on the person. I often don’t understand why relationships must end. But,it seems that saying thank you and really being grateful does help the process of sadness fade. Many smiles and gratitude to you for all you’ve taught me over the years.
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Posted by laurabruno on August 15, 2012 at 12:15 am
@Cheryl and Allison, you’re welcome! Much love and gratitude for both of you. 🙂
@Gina, it’s not actually someone I know in either a personal or professional way. The sadness was more for humanity in general in that I keep seeing how destructive this pattern is. It was an opportunity to foster some really lovely community in our neighborhood and share some grace where a request had seemingly been launched only to be strongly rebuffed. Time to reread ET101. LOL, but seriously, that’s the message I got from my naptime dream this afternoon. I’m also reading Joanna Macy’s latest and just honoring that my own personal rules of conduct vary VASTLY from what passes for civility on this planet except in the Faery Realm, which makes total sense to me. Much love and thanks to you. You and your family are some of those sparkles that remind me there are many of us here right now, and this is perhaps exactly WHY we are all here right now. xoxo
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Posted by Allison DeYenno Jacobson on August 14, 2012 at 9:11 pm
I am so grateful for your gifts and the love and wisdom you continue to share with me and the world. ❤
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Posted by Cheryl on August 14, 2012 at 10:26 pm
Lovely, as always. Thank you!!
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Posted by Laura Bruno ~ Attitude Of Gratitude ~ 14August2012 « The Golden Age Daily on August 14, 2012 at 10:26 pm
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Posted by Gina LaVerde on August 15, 2012 at 1:23 am
We’re definitely in this together! xoxo
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Posted by Laura Bruno – Attitude Of Gratitude – 15 August 2012 | Lucas 2012 Infos on August 15, 2012 at 11:50 am
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Posted by Goddess Durga (@goddessdurga) on August 15, 2012 at 4:44 pm
Dear Laura,
Your post has me thinking about Christianity, which most people are familiar with only through the distorted variety that is the modern \”church\” where social hierarchies have infiltrated so that what was to have been a socially-levelling \”kingdom of God\” undoing divisions between master and slave, male and female, jew and greek, ended up reifying and perpetuating all of those hegemonies. But if you go back and read the New Testament, its shockingly radical. There is no hierarchy of \”sin\” (which we can translate as \”debt\”). The point is that all are indebted, therefore all are in need of forgiveness. And the forgiveness wipes out debt. It\’s not as if you, who are only a little in debt, whose greatest \”sin\” if you were is to have forgotten a thank you note, are less in need of \”forgiveness\” than the murderer. There\’s one entry price. How radical.
I think Jesus knew how upsetting the whole idea would be, how disruptive to society, which is why he told the parable of the vineyard workers. Not sure you know it but a bunch of workers agree to work all day for a fee. Later in the day, the vineyard owner realized he needs more workers, and hires a bunch of people to work just one hour. He pays them the same amount. The workers who\’d been working all day are, of course, furious. So Jesus reminds them that they\’d agree to work for that amount, they what\’s the big deal …
It\’s amazing what that parable brings up for people. How distorted are our notions of \”justice.\” Or rather, our notions of mercy, which we will never understand as long as we view it through the framework of \”justice.\” An eye for an eye. Mercy shatters the framework.
If it\’s the \”kingdom\” you seek, that is, the perfect freedom that is our birthright (you don\’t need to interpret it in a narrow Christian framework, you can understand it as an ontological shift) you have to understand that you can\’t recreate the same hierarchies within the kingdom that operate outside it. This is why the rich young ruler is so upset when Jesus tells him he must sell what he has and give it to the poor if he wants to enter. It\’s not that he can\’t live without his riches in the kingdom where all his needs are perfectly anticipated and perfectly met. It\’s that he can\’t abide the levelling effect of the kingdom. That even though he would have everything, he would not have more.
Sorry not to be able to articulate better –
Elizabeth
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Posted by laurabruno on August 15, 2012 at 5:31 pm
Absolutely agree with you, Elizabeth. There is such wisdom in the Bible. It’s like what Ghandi says, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” Systemic virus in the Matrix … antidote is UNconditional Love. 🙂
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Posted by Flash Silvermoon on August 16, 2012 at 6:54 am
Wow Yes I know this feeling well. As a Psychic counselor on many levels I experience this over and over. I loathe the feeling I get when a client keeps pulling from me well after I have given them a lot or tries to extract something from me and is still ungrateful and it makes me put up boundaries and makes me unwilling to extend in the future to them and there are wonderful beings who I gladly give them loads of extra time all they could want because there is gratitude and no feeling of being pulled from. I have done this work for 42 years and in my 29th year I asked Spirit to just send me the growers no more peeps who would use me as a fortune teller gladly take a pay cut and have better experiences and it has mostly worked very well. Right after that I was sent multitudes of animals to work on funny! Blessings Flash Silvermoon
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Posted by laurabruno on August 16, 2012 at 1:27 pm
Yes, Flash, I did that a long time ago with the clients, too, as it makes things easier for me and for them. Everyone grows at their own pace, which for some is very slowly, indeed. I love my clients and students, as they tend to be really lovely people. I have found that I need to do cord cuttings and clearings morning and night these days, as the general populations is really latching onto others when the going gets rough in their own world. This wasn’t a client, though. It was actually someone in my neighborhood who appeared to want to have more of a community involvement and flow. If it had been a client, my radar would have been up; I just really wasn’t expecting it over something so simple — just blew me away! Blessings, Laura
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Posted by Lisa Ryan on August 30, 2012 at 6:11 pm
I appreciate this lovely and timely article. My practice of gratitude has served me well. It’s gotten me through some difficult times and it has also helped me to make some difficult decisions about some of the people in my life. Although I have learned to harness the power of gratitude, and I share my experiences with others, I have learned that not everyone wants to be grateful. Sometimes they are just too stuck in the muck. Instead of doing something (like finding things for which they CAN be grateful), they would rather bring others down with them. I am grateful I can CHOOSE the people that I surround myself with. Life is grand – and I am grateful!
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Posted by laurabruno on August 30, 2012 at 7:34 pm
Thanks for sharing, too! Life IS grand — and I am grateful! 🙂
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