And, how do you express your gratitude? -- by simply having the attitude of gratefulness... Gratitude and attitude! These two thoughts are similar, in that gratitude is an attitude, one that keeps you inside the flow of All Good, which is God. When you can maintain the attitude of gratefulness throughout each day, you are well on your way to growth, spiritually and in every other area.
~ from MESSAGES TO OUR FAMILY by Annie and Byron Kirkwood
Peter Matthiessen in "Earth and Spirit" speaks of reclaiming our harmony with the universe:
As a first step we might consider this Great Mystery that is all about us ... It is the music of the stars, the color of the winds, the dead stillness between tides ... It is no less and no more strange than our life itself.
The purpose of meditation practice is not enlightenment; it is to pay attention even at unextraordinary times, to be of the present, nothing-but-in-the-present, to bear this mindfulness of now into each event of ordinary life.
