Who teaches and helps you?

Who sees you for who you really are?

Apr 11, 2023

I bet there is a lot we can all learn about gratitude, me included. Let’s assume we can develop our powers of gratitude so they are deeper and finer than they are right now.

Let’s proceed on the assumption that cultivating profound gratitude and expressing profound gratitude can make us smarter and kinder and wilder.

Maybe practicing the art of gratitude can be like a superpower for us. Let’s proceed on the hypothesis that feeling regular streams of gratitude can transform our consciousness, perhaps diminish some of our suffering.

We will play with the word “gratitude” and try to shed any numbness we might have about what it means. We will get rid of boring, outmoded ideas and feelings we have about gratitude. We’ll enliven it. Boost it and feed it and nurture it. Make it a source of joy on a regular basis.

I invite us all to treat gratitude as a devotional act. As as a spiritual discipline. As a gift we give to ourselves and to other people, and as a blessing we offer to the divine.

Who is it that said prayer should be at least as much about giving thanks as about asking for stuff?

Let's treat gratitude as an opportunity to be close to the divine source through our joy about all that we have been given.

Consider the possibility of celebrating regular Gratitude Festivals.

During these jubilees of appreciation, you confer praise and respect on the creatures, both human and otherwise, that have played seminal roles in inspiring you to become yourself. You would devote yourself to invoking and expressing thanks.

Who teaches and helps you?

Who sees you for who you really are?

Who nudges you in the direction of your fuller destiny and awakens you to your signature truths?

Who loves you brilliantly?

As an experiment, for one day, every time you feel a surge of disappointment or frustration or anger, substitute a burst of gratitude instead—toward some person, animal, situation, or experience that you love and value.

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SO MANY THINGS GO RIGHT FOR YOU

Of the many things that have gone right for you during your time on Earth, the most crucial was your birth. As you crossed over the threshold, trading the warm dark sanctuary for the bright noisy enigma, you didn't die!

It was a difficult act of high magic that involved many people who worked very hard in your behalf. The skills they provided in helping you navigate your rite of passage were in turn made possible by previous generations of threshold-tenders who bequeathed their expertise.

Months before that initiation, a more secret miracle bloomed: Your life began as a single cell, spawned by the explosive fusion of two highly specialized bundles of chromosomes.

How could that tiny package of raw material have possibly grown a brain and liver and heart and stomach over a period of a few months?

What inscrutable genius guided and oversaw the emergence of your fully formed infant body, that virtuoso creation, from the slimmest of clues?

"Something unknown is doing we don't know what," said astrophysicist Arthur Eddington about the universe. And we are the beneficiaries.

P.S. You have continued to grow since your birth, with millions of new cells continually blooming to replace the old ones that are always dying.

At this moment, you're host to about 50 trillion cells, and each of them is really a sentient being in its own right. They all act together as a community, implementing the monumental collaboration you call your body.

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YOU BODY WORKS!

Your body works! Its intricate force and sustained grace are amply supported by your heart, which circulates your blood all the way out to replenish the energy of the muscles and nerves in your fingers and palms and wrists.

After your blood has delivered its blessings, it finds its way back to your heart to be refreshed. This masterful mystery repeats itself over and over again without you ever having to think about it.

Contemplate the unfathomable prowess of your digestive system. Countless chemical reactions have to unfold with alacrity in order for it to work as well as it does.

The gastric juice has to be composed of just the right mix of pepsin, rennin, mucus, and hydrochloric acid. The bile and pancreatic juice must arrive at the right spot and at the right time.

The enterocytes in your small intestine always have to remember anew how to carry out their uptake of ions, lipids, and peptides. How can they possibly be so good at knowing exactly what to do and when to do it?

The circulation of blood and the conversion of food into fuel are just two of many alchemical feats that the secret intelligence within you takes care of.

Thousands of other exchanges and transformations and syntheses are ceaselessly working their wizardry inside your body without your conscious participation.

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YOUR MANY INCREDIBLE POWERS

You may sometimes take for granted the luxuriant variety of unique and subtle aromas that come to you, but the truth is that you love your sense of smell.

You're also thrilled about your power to hear sounds, and taste flavors, and touch textures. A few of these impressions repel or offend you—although even those are often interesting—but the vast majority ground you and gratify you.

Maybe you rarely celebrate the fact that you can think, but according to my inside sources, the flash of mercurial codes through your brain is among the universe's most dazzling accomplishments.

Try to imagine the colossal divine plan or the implausible series of fabulous accidents that had to coalesce in order for you to be able to generate thoughts — soaring, luminescent, liberating thoughts or shriveled, rusty, burrowing thoughts — thoughts that can invent or destroy, corrupt or redeem, bless or curse.

Your capacity to experience emotions and passions and longings is one of your most precious endowments.

You may not exult in the waves of anger or jealousy that sometimes ripple through you, but you're glad you have the power to feel them.

Your yearning for an impossible dream may feel shattering, but you relish being able to accommodate that much intensity.

And as for the sensations that are more unambiguously positive, like a surge of courage in the face of an intriguing challenge or a surprising breakthrough with an intimate ally: They're treasures beyond measure. Can I hear you shout hallelujah?

Language is another spectacular marvel. Millions of souls have cooperated for untold centuries to cultivate a system of communication that you understand very well.

Your ability to speak and read and write makes you feel strong and dynamic. It intricately connects you to the world and allows you to engage in one of your greatest pleasures: hearing and telling stories.

Your imagination may be the best gift of all. It's the source of your creative power. If there's a particular experience or object you want to bring into your life, the first thing you've got to do is visualize it.

The practical actions you take to manifest your dreams always refer back to the pictures in your mind's eye.

And so every goal you fulfill, every quest you carry out, begins as an inner vision. Your imagination is the engine of your destiny.

It's the catalyst with which you design your future. Do you know where it comes from? Do you have any idea how powerful it is?

Here's yet another amazement. You're in possession of the extraordinary power of self-awareness.

Maybe you don't fully realize how far-fetched that stupendous ability is. Get this: You not only know that you are you; you also know that you know that you know you are you.

With an ease that belies the complexity that had to be built into the structure of creation to make it possible, you are conscious that you're alive and awake and unique.

You have a million different feelings and fantasies about what it means to be you. How is that even possible?

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HAVE YOU EVER BEEN LOVED?

Have you ever been loved? I bet you have been loved so much and so deeply that you have become blasé about the enormity of the grace it confers.

So let me remind you: To be loved is a privilege and prize equivalent to being born. If you're smart, you pause regularly to bask in the astonishing knowledge that there are many people out there who care for you and want you to thrive and hold you in their thoughts with fondness.

Animals, too: You have been the recipient of their boundless affection. The spirits of allies who've left this world continue to send their tender regards, as well.

Do you "believe" in angels and other divine beings? Whether or not you do, I can assure you that there are hordes of them beaming their uncanny consecrations your way. You are awash in torrents of love.

As tremendous a gift it is to get love, giving love is an equal boon. Many scientific studies demonstrate that whenever you bestow blessings on other people, you bless yourself.

Expressing practical compassion not only strengthens your immune system and bolsters your health, but also promotes self-esteem, enhances longevity, and stimulates tranquility and even euphoria.

As the scientists say, we humans are hardwired to benefit from altruism.

What's your position on making love? Do you regard it as one of the nicer fringe benefits of being alive? Or are you more inclined to see it as a central proof of the primal magnanimity of the universe? I'm more aligned with the latter view.

Imagine yourself in the fluidic blaze of that intimate spectacle right now. Savor the fantasy of entwining bodies and hearts and minds with an appealing partner who has the power to enchant you.

What better way do you know of to dwell in sacred space while immersed in your body's delight? To commune with the Divine Wow while having fun? To tap into your own deeper knowing while at the same time gazing into the mysterious light of a fellow creature?

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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

Week beginning April 13

ARIES (March 21-April 19): I hope that in the coming weeks, you will keep your mind bubbling with zesty mysteries. I hope you'll exult in the thrill of riddles that are beyond your current power to solve. If you cultivate an appreciation of uncanny uncertainties, life will soon begin bringing you uncanny certainties. Do you understand the connection between open-hearted curiosity and fertile rewards? Don’t merely tolerate the enigmas you are immersed in—love them!

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): An old sadness is ripening into practical wisdom. A confusing loss is about to yield a clear revelation you can use to improve your life. In mysterious ways, a broken heart you suffered in the past may become a wild card that inspires you to deepen and expand your love. Wow and hallelujah, Taurus! I’m amazed at the turnarounds that are in the works for you. Sometime in the coming weeks, what wounded you once upon a time will lead to a vibrant healing. Wonderful surprise!

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): What is the true and proper symbol for your sign, Gemini? Twins standing shoulder to shoulder as they gaze out on the world with curiosity? Or two lovers embracing each other with mischievous adoration in their eyes? Both scenarios can accurately represent your energy, depending on your mood and the phase you're in. In the coming weeks, I advise you to draw on the potency of both. You will be wise to coordinate the different sides of your personality in pursuit of a goal that interests them all. And you will also place yourself in harmonious alignment with cosmic rhythms as you harness your passionate urge to merge in a good cause.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Some scientists speculate that more people suffer from allergies than ever before because civilization has over-sanitized the world. The fetish for scouring away germs and dirt means that our immune systems don't get enough practice in fending off interlopers. In a sense, they are "bored" because they have too little to do. That's why they fight stuff that's not a threat, like tree pollens and animal dander. Hence, we develop allergies to harmless substances. I hope you will apply this lesson as a metaphor in the coming weeks, fellow Cancerian. Be sure the psychological component of your immune system isn't warding off the wrong people and things. It's healthy for you to be protective, but not hyper-over-protective in ways that shut out useful influences.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): One night in 1989, Leo evolutionary biologist Margie Profet went to sleep and had a dream that revealed to her new information about the nature of menstruation. The dream scene was a cartoon of a woman's reproductive system. It showed little triangles being carried away by the shed menstrual blood. Eureka! As Profet lay in bed in the dark, she intuited a theory that no scientist had ever guessed: that the sloughed-off uterine lining had the key function of eliminating pathogens, represented by the triangles. In subsequent years, she did research to test her idea, supported by studies with electron microscopes. Now her theory is regarded as fact. I predict that many of you Leos will soon receive comparable benefits. Practical guidance will be available in your dreams and twilight awareness and altered states. Pay close attention!

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): You don't know what is invisible to you. The truths that are out of your reach may as well be hiding. The secret agendas you are not aware of are indeed secret. That's the not-so-good news, Virgo. The excellent news is that you now have the power to uncover the rest of the story, at least some of it. You will be able to penetrate below the surface and find buried riches. You will dig up missing information whose absence has prevented you from understanding what has been transpiring. There may be a surprise or two ahead, but they will ultimately be agents of healing.

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Cartoon by Mike Baldwin

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LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Visionary philosopher Buckminster Fuller referred to pollution as a potential resource we have not yet figured out how to harvest. A company called Algae Systems does exactly that. It uses wastewater to grow algae that scrub carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and yield carbon-negative biofuels. Can we invoke this approach as a metaphor that's useful to you? Let's dream up examples. Suppose you're a creative artist. You could be inspired by your difficult emotions to compose a great song, story, painting, or dance. Or if you're a lover who is in pain, you could harness your suffering to free yourself of a bad old habit or ensure that an unpleasant history doesn't repeat itself. Your homework, Libra, is to figure out how to take advantage of a “pollutant” or two in your world.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Soon you will graduate from your bumpy lessons and enter a smoother, silkier phase. You will find refuge from the naysayers as you create a liberated new power spot for yourself. In anticipation of this welcome transition, I offer this motivational exhortation from poet Gwendolyn Brooks: "Say to them, say to the down-keepers, the sun-slappers, the self-soilers, the harmony-hushers, 'Even if you are not ready for day, it cannot always be night.'" I believe you are finished with your worthwhile but ponderous struggles, Scorpio. Get ready for an excursion toward luminous grace.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): I periodically seek the counsel of a Sagittarian psychic. She's half-feral and sometimes speaks in riddles. She tells me she occasionally converses by phone with a person she calls "the ex-Prime Minister of Narnia." I confided in her that lately it has been a challenge for me to keep up with you Sagittarians because you have been expanding beyond the reach of my concepts. She gave me a pronouncement that felt vaguely helpful, though it was also a bit over my head: "The Archer may be quite luxuriously curious and furiously hilarious; studiously lascivious and victoriously delirious; salubriously industrious but never lugubriously laborious." Here’s how I interpret that: Right now, pretty much anything is possible if you embrace unpredictability.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): "I’m not insane," says Capricorn actor Jared Leto. "I’m voluntarily indifferent to conventional rationality." That attitude might serve you well in the coming weeks. You could wield it to break open opportunities that were previously closed due to excess caution. I suspect you’re beginning a fun phase of self-discovery when you will learn a lot about yourself. As you do, I hope you will experiment with being at least somewhat indifferent to conventional rationality. Be willing to be surprised. Be receptive to changing your mind about yourself.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): People of all genders feel urges to embellish their native beauty with cosmetic enhancements. I myself haven't done so, but I cheer on those who use their flesh for artistic experiments. At the same time, I am also a big fan of us loving ourselves exactly as we are. And I'm hoping that in the coming weeks, you will emphasize the latter over the former. I urge you to indulge in an intense period of maximum self-appreciation. Tell yourself daily how gorgeous and brilliant you are. Tell others, too! Cultivate a glowing pride in the gifts you offer the world. If anyone complains, tell them you’re doing the homework your astrologer gave you.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): I encourage you to amplify the message you have been trying to deliver. If there has been any shyness or timidity in your demeanor, purge it. If you have been less than forthright in speaking the whole truth and nothing but the truth, boost your clarity and frankness. Is there anything you could do to help your audience be more receptive? Any tenderness you could express to stimulate their willingness and ability to see you truly?

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