It is a dizzying time for all. At a time like this, as the world panics –
the one thing we must not lose sight of in the free fall of everything from
world health, economics and the financial market, and the domino effect that occurs
compounded by weather, homelessness, and lost hopes and dreams, bucket list
travel, along with human connection is that –
Today, in this present moment, gratitude can be a comfort.
Before you say “Pffft” or deliver a virtual middle finger to
this thought or me for delivering it, take a deep breath and ask yourself what
you are grateful for right now in this moment.
In what may feel like some alternative world of a ghost town
on lock-down and isolation, are you grateful for a human exchange of words?
Are you grateful that someone’s pure heart intention is to want to greet you the old fashioned way,
but they have adapted now out of respect for your health and theirs enough to
be sensitive to not do the old social convention?
In your knee-jerk reactive mode, are you grateful that you
are in a place where you can stock up on necessary items –are you grateful that
you can do this? Are you grateful that
you have a place to put them?
In every 24 hours that occurs, when you wake up in the
morning realizing you are healthy, are you grateful just to have today?
As you log into your Inbox, are you grateful for the barrage
of emails sitting there about the practices and policies that certain companies
you affiliate yourself with, are taking responsibility to reassure you of what
they are doing? If you are annoyed by
these because you say to yourself, “shouldn’t they have been protecting me all
along…?” -- Aren’t you now grateful that
they are now being forced to improve upon what they do?
Are you realizing through this unexpected event, that there
are lots of things you told yourself you ‘needed’ but you are now having the
ability to ‘adapt’ without?
Along with the change that occurs in life, or the tidal wave
of transformation, that puts everyone in a high-anxiety place of discomfort,
being thankful for what you DO HAVE in this moment, even in ‘realization’ is
worth developing a comfort around.
We are sadly learning day-by-day, every passing day that life is short.
While millions worry, or feel hopeless and helpless - do not underestimate what still exists
within you, RIGHT NOW.
Walking outside is weird, like I’ve entered some strange apocalyptic
movie. It was at the store pulling disinfectant wipes for the shopping cart where
an older woman looked up at me and said…
“I would pull one out for you to be friendly and kind, but I
guess that would defeat the purpose of what the wipe is here for.”
Ahh….. a HUMAN having authentic human intention, now
morphing into her 'new normal' of how she would be and now having to censor her
natural instinct to replace it with a new one of consciousness from a new
place.
I was grateful for her words. I was grateful for her pure
heart intent. I was grateful she
actually said something and was not afraid to talk to me when some people are
reacting with racism as they see my Asian face on the street and mass-clumping
me into something that they didn’t used to do, or would only privately do.
I was grateful to be alive in the moment to witness it as it was
happening, aware that the world has changed from what it once was.
The old way of operating, I would have had the initial
thought to ask if I could hug her to thank her, for kindness. Spiritually, I had to regroup myself to tell
her this just vocally instead of do the actual action, which I know she would
have appreciated and welcomed under other circumstances.
Instead, we just looked at each other as humans shaking our
head at what our new world is and trying to find our place in it, as we navigate
our authentic selves and intent vs. having to censor ourselves from the human
experience because it is not safe to do so; as other humans walked past us with
face masks, hoodies and gloves.
Oddly, as I grappled with this ‘new normal’ – my human began
to ‘question’ what the future would look like as I grounded my soul back into
my vessel to remember that for some odd, inexplicable reason THIS is also for
purpose and reason unfolding that we do not yet know, for a shift in our being
on earth.
We can ask the big questions... is this Universal wake-up call for us to be more appreciative, mindful, thoughtful, respectful, and careful? Is this overwhelming 'change/shift' to the world as we once knew it transforming to see how we will show up in it from how we once were?
It is here that gratitude continued to swell as just a
minute, a moment, a day, today – and while my conscious has always known, the
present is all we have, I had to work hard at forcing my human to stay in this
place of being, simply grateful. It is here we can master this at a new level.
While humans and their mettle have been tested time and time again, you may naturally wonder how, when, where, if ... what you learn will be enough to move forward. While that is up to you, there is much in the surrender vs. the fight to learn in the in-between and that is the reality epiphany we can take forward with what we do with it.
Within our own moment of gratitude we can find an energy
space of praying for others, showing greater compassion, tolerance and
understanding that as bad as all of us feel right now, there is someone else
who is in worse dire straits and we must be conscious of this as we navigate
our survival terrain of what is and is becoming.
Here, we can also witness our own strength in moving forward
with what we have and express gratitude for it – even we are still figuring out
‘next steps.’
What you CAN DO is develop patience with yourself as you
adapt to what is going on – realizing that everyone is doing the best they can
with what they have in their logistical tool box, as you get an opportunity to
work on your own – emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually.
As we look at what is a ‘new normal’ that no one wanted or
asked for – the world that we once knew is not going to be the same as it was
before because all of us are changing in this moment. We will not be the same again. We will not ‘unsee’ what we have seen.
So here I ask you, Lovely Souls –
- · What are you seeing about yourself and your soul right now?
- · Who are you in this moment to yourself and others?
- · When did you gear-shift your emotional state and mental state into survival?
- · How have you stepped into a changed mindset of gratitude from what you had before?
- · What have you reconciled in your mind from your old self?
- · Who have you surfaced as and what has surprised you most?
- · What are you currently changing now in perception?
- · Where did you find your strength today?
Yes… I know, too many questions. But I am asking you this –
because for many of you, you are slowing down to reflect …. Reflection makes
you realize things you did not before because life was lived in a different
context.
Like a James Bond martini that is shaken, we wake up to
become alert. But it is when we are
stirred, we find gratitude for what is and what isn’t in our daily experience, as
we try to cope and navigate the waters of life from a place we did not realize
we needed to self-reflect to navigate in resurrection.
As the world tries to cope, and is being asked to improve
upon how it functions, what it addresses, and who it will become from actions
taken or not taken – we are seeing the difference between REACTION vs.
ACTION.
We also discover that we can
also have gratitude for the very same option we choose in said moment and HOW
that helps us expand, grow and change for the better at this time as we find
our strength together, that the worst-case scenario is causing as a huge push
for us to do so further and harder than we would like.
What is your ‘new normal’ going to do in creating more
gratitude for what you have in the present moment?
How will that answer help you determine whether your
best-self can show up today?
I will leave you with these thoughts, Lovely Souls as we
ride this metamorphosis together in leaving behind a world we once knew and may
be nostalgically grieving, as we embrace how we will create something better together in going
forward.
Blessings, Peace, Gratitude and Light.
Stacey Kumagai
Namaste.
www.pinterest.com/linkronicity
