My Spontaneous Gratitude Prayer

    This Thanksgiving I would like to share with you one of my favorite prayers.  It just burst out of me one day while I was dancing in a large golden room, with my women friends, during a Thanksgiving Holiday, some many years ago.  I call it My Spontaneous Gratitude Prayer.  

    I most like to do this prayer while dancing, allowing my body to engage in free form interpretive movement.  I let myself twirl and swoop and rise to my toes with the words, before sliding down onto or toward the floor and then reaching up again, to frolic or slow down and sway and then romp about some more. 

         This prayer is a sort of free association experience.  I let myself drift into a slightly altered state of consciousness, and then I just begin to think of this and that and say whatever pops into my mind that I am grateful for, which is pretty much everything.  

    So this month, I'm inviting you to play with this idea, even while sitting or standing or lying down.  But if you are feeling frisky enough, try it while moving.  And in either case, set yourself free.  Let your mind drift and open your voice to express your feelings about the many, wonderful aspects of being alive on earth.

    Here is an example to get you started.

    "I am grateful for roses and kisses and bright sun shine.  I am grateful for the moon and the wind and still winter nights.  Oh how I love horses and birds and bees and trees and my beloved husband and all the children of the world and all the people and animals and plants of the world.  Thank you for each and everyone of them.  

    I'm grateful for barns and cats and fine wine, even though I rarely drink any, but I'm glad for those who enjoy it so.  And I'm grateful for the food that finds it's way to our table and for all who helped to bring it there.

    I'm grateful for soil and mulch and the good green and blue earth.  I'm grateful for the strength in my body that allows me to plant my garden and dig my fingers into the dirt and pull out potatoes and carrots and beautiful shiny bright earth worms.  I do love the worms and I'm grateful for my horse, who is in spirit now, and for all of the joy she brought to me, and all of the fun we had together, and how she helps me to laugh out loud, even to this day.  I am grateful for laughter.  Oh, how I am grateful for laughter and dancing and swimming and sleeping and eating and all of the lovely pleasures the world has to offer.

    I'm grateful to everything and everyone, who has helped me to form my life.  I'm so very grateful for the moments that have helped me to grow, even if they seemed difficult, they helped me to know better who I am and what I need and to better know my love for life.

    I'm grateful for grasses and the wild herds that feed themselves on the great plains.  I'm grateful for forests and rivers and all of the fishes and the great families of animals and herbs.  I'm grateful for volcanos and the fire of spirit that burns in us all.  

    I'm grateful for the cells and tissues of my body and the great inner wisdom that resides there and guides me through my days, with skill and expertise, all innate and free.  I'm grateful for health care providers and their assistance, so lovingly given and compassionate.  I'm grateful for compassion and love and for every human emotion and for all of the emotions of all sentient beings.  

    I'm grateful for rocks and pathways into the woods.  I'm grateful for dogs and for cats and bumble bees, antelope and whales.  I'm grateful for leaves on the trees blowing in the breeze.  

    Moving in my mind into the prayer position, I'll stop here.  But, let me just finish with how grateful I am for you.
    Happy Thanksgiving.  With love.

Growing Our Consciousness Through Right Brain Awareness

Humanity has accomplished such great strides with our technological advancements.  But I think that our next great human evolutionary step will not involve technology or be external, I think it will be biological and internal, through the way that we think and perceive our world.  Though generalizations about the traits of our right and left brain are overly simplified, they do serve to inform us about how we process information and the way that we think.  

Both of our brain hemispheres are completely separate.  They do communicate fluidly from left to right, but each processes information and thinks about things in completely different ways.

Nearly all of our modern advancements have happened through what are loosely known as our left brain skills.  Here we use our analytical thought to evaluate past experiences and critically consider future possibilities.  Our predominantly right brain skills certainly come into play with flashes of insight, however, it is what is thought of as the left brain, that is the work horse, when it comes to the current day human achievements like air travel and weaponry for defense.   

And indeed, all of our physical body movement, perceptual and thinking skills involve both sides of our brain, but what is important here is what serves us for our understanding.  So, please forgive me for using these generalizations, but they help us to more clearly understand our strengths and our deficiencies.  

With that in mind, we can see our modern Western cultural way of being as the end product of what can be thought of as an essentially left-brain-focused thought filled world.  And we have indeed accomplished much.  But the spotlight has thus far always been on "me," rather than "we."  A typical example of this might be something like, "Better profits for my corporation," at the unfortunate but "necessary" expense of a loss of biological diversity.  

It seems to me, that the time has come for us to consider the more holistic, more all-encompassing, more right-brain view if we are going to survive these kinds of "side effects" from what could be called our non-inclusive left brain perspective.  

So, one might ask, "How do we switch to a more holistic view?"  The good news is that we don't have to re-invent the wheel.  It's all already been done before.  Many of the indigenous cultures that have preceded our Western one, here in North America, were well aware of the tendency toward what can be called left brain dominance.  They intuitively understood the long term survival benefits of a more right brain focused way of thinking and incorporated it into their way of life.

These cultures did this through the use of pictographs instead of words, storytelling and oral traditions instead of written languages.  They knew that time spent in ceremony or fasting or in vision quests opens the psyche to inspiration, imagination and flashes of insight.  Art and creativity, music and dance, additionally are key aspects to what can be called a right brain embracing world view.  

Another cultural skill set, loosely attributed to the right brain, is the well developed use of the senses in the present moment: feeling the direction of the wind, listening for sound, tasting the plants or the water.  When these habits become a part of everyday life they bring us to the here and now or present moment consciousness.  They also help bring our awareness to the bigger picture.  We see the whole forest, not just the one tree.

As we continue to wake up to the problems inherent in our essentially more analytical and self focused view, I see us making changes accordingly.  The women's spirituality movement is rich with ceremony.  Personal retreats, where one can receive insights and inspiration, are gaining popularity.  Yoga, photography, music, art and dance are being seen as valuable, albeit largely missing, components for education in our schools.  And the environmental movement, women's liberation, gay rights and AIM are all helping us to be more inclusive and to see the bigger picture.  This is what could be known as the right brain rising.  Now all we have to do is to let it come into play more fully by stepping into this magic that already exists in me and in you.


© Josephine Laing 2016

Happiness Runs

In 1969, Donovan, the Scottish singer, songwriter and guitarist, released a beautiful album called Barabajagal.  In it he shared one of my all time favorite songs which he had written and composed.  If ever I want to smile and have myself some fun, I remember his little tune and start singing its lovely chorus.  It's a wonderful tool to keep in one's back pocket to share at parties or with children and it is a sure fire cure for the blues.  If you don't know the tune, listen to this little excerpt.  It is such a joy and will make you want to get up and dance around.  And speaking of rounds, it is delightful to sing this in a round.

Happiness runs in a circular motion
Thought is like a little boat upon the sea
Everybody is a part of everything anyway
You can have everything if you let yourself be
Happiness runs, happiness runs
Happiness runs, happiness runs
Happiness runs, happiness runs
Happiness runs, happiness runs
Happiness runs in a circular motion
Thought is like a little boat upon the sea
Everybody is a part of everything anyway
You can have everything if you let yourself be.

Sometimes I substitute the last line with "You can be so happy if you let yourself be."  And both are true.  We all tend to ride ourselves so hard.  And most often, if we just let ourselves be who we really are, not only do we enjoy ourselves much more, but we also find that we are quite naturally tending to our own unique part in the grander scheme of things.  So with thanks to Donovan and in honor of all of our New Year's resolutions, here's to letting ourselves be happy.   Happy New Year to you all. 
                                                ♡

© Josephine Laing, 2015