communications, delivering this lesson to you in whatever
particular place in the world you happen to inhabit might be
difficult. Thanks to the world-wide web, the internet and email,
however, we now have high-speed access to a previously undreamed-of
world of connectivity and can now literally "reach out and touch"
people spread all across the planet. But as remarkable as this new
connection to the world is, it cannot hold a candle to the speed
and ease with which a blessing can reach out to touch and transform.
The more practiced we become with the art of blessing, the more
aware we are of the truth of our being and the Divine way in which
we are so fully connected to the world around us. We discover a
willingness, many of us for the first time, to listen to our soul
and follow its guidance, and with each blessing we send forth, the
world of which we are a part undergoes a subtle yet undeniable
change. It becomes brighter, smoother, softer and infinitely more
sweet.
Notice I described the change occuring in our world as "subtle".
The fact is that, though they can be, the changes wrought by our
blessings are rarely ostentatious, dramatic or filled with any
sense of the spiritually glamorous. As David Spangler writes,
"Real blessings in everyday life are more like peasants than
nobles, they move and mingle with the commonality of our daily
experiences, sometimes going unnoticed or unrecognized for what
they are."
Blessings are blessings in whatever form they take. Our job is not
to question whether one act of blessing is greater than another,
nor is it to judge ourselves as being more or less capable of
blessing than someone else. Our job is to bless in whatever
ordinary way feels good to us and to keep on blessing for the sheer
joy the act of blessing brings.
And when we do this, when we practice the art of blessing everyone
and everything in our lives in whatever sweet and simple fashion
feels best to us, then with a swiftness that technology, no matter
how advanced it might become, can never match, our ordinary
blessings connect us to the Divine and make it possible for us to
see our universe in a whole and extraordinary new way.
And in reality, whether its peasant-born or noble in its rank, a
blessing need do nothing else. It has done the job it was meant to
do the moment it changes the way we view the world.
Changing us, you see, is what blessing others is really all about.
Today's affirmation:
"In the every day and ordinary, blessings abound."
Today's quote:
"In approaching the art of blessing, it's important to understand
that we are really entering a territory that is different from the
one we navigate through most of our daily lives. We are shifting to
a way of looking at the world and at ourselves that is unusual in
our mainstream society. This is not a magical or esoteric
perspective. It's simply a way of understanding the ordinariness
of the sacred and the sacredness of the ordinary."
-- David Spangler
