Receiving

The world, our lives, our daily bread, our loved ones, our opportunities, our challenges and difficulties—all are gifts. Even the innate capacity to receive is a gift.    
     There is not a single moment in life in which we are not given something. We can begin to notice this; we can increase our capacity to receive daily, both that which seems small and that which is big.     
     If we imagine ourselves as open cisterns, we would soon become aware that we are continually being filled. Every moment we have more than enough—if we are open to receive.                        
     It is gratitude that increases our capacity. We know the saying, “to them that have, more shall be given.” The more we are aware that we have been given, the more we are given. The abundance is never ending.                                  
     What a joyous task then lies before us each day. Showered with blessings, it will take our entire lifetime to learn to be nothing but a living thankfulness.

From the new book by Gunilla Norris, SIMPLE WAYS: Towards the Sacred (BlueBridge, 2008).

Receiving Nature

Under every stone and in every stump we can find burgeoning life. Tiny life swims in a thimble full of water. With eyes that can see, there is unstoppable life in every nook and cranny.       God’s joy is expressed in such variety that not even one snowflake will be exactly like another. Exultation is at the core of creation. All creation is God’s self-expression and pours forth in majesty.             
     Our true nature is part of this joy. And the nature we see all around us is expressed joy.  From fish that never see light at the bottom of the ocean, to the lark flying so high it disappears in a cloud—majesty is the home we are set in. What can we do but copy the psalmist and sing, “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord?”
     Opened to such wonder we are shattered by the sheer beauty of it. We can feel how we are part of the weltering permission that is God’s creation. We are insignificant in one way and yet so infinitely precious and holy in another. Perhaps it is only in our gratitude that we can fully feel and understand that we are all of it.  
      How natural then to spend our lives in more and more praise.    

From the new book by Gunilla Norris, SIMPLE WAYS: Towards the Sacred (BlueBridge, 2008).