Gratitude and Oneness

Is gratitude an insight or a feeling? Gratitude knows something about good, but also feels good. Gratitude is perhaps the pure equipoise between head and heart, between knowing and feeling. Oneness with Life. Profound purity is shed abundantly on a grateful heart, gratitude being inextricably linked to reverence and praise. Gratitude is awe expressed in consecration and a yearning heart. Gratitude is a statement for oneness - I see this beautifully expressed in Anna-Zoe's studio art.

I remember when I was about fourteen years old, that I started to fell in love with the Bible and carried it around with me every day in a small pocket version. I also started to study everything, Mary Baker Eddy ever wrote, one book being Retrospection and Introspection. One afternoon, as I sat in the family living room, I had said book on my lap when I came across this sentence:

“Christian Science declares that there is but one Truth, Life, Love, but one Spirit, Mind, Soul.” (p. 60)

A radical, simple and deep sentence. Christian Science is not so much a term for a religion, it means simply the law of good, something that is to be discovered, not invented or constructed. The oneness of God's law had a profound effect on my thought and I felt that this sentence didn’t just present a nice proposal but a spiritual fact – a law. Gratitude and joy, insight and feeling, awe, reverence and praise, all in one filled my heart and thought. If there is only one Truth, Life, Love, Spirit, Mind, Soul – than we are as His/Her offspring are included in this oneness. We express authenticity, energy, gentleness, substance, understanding and perception, all spiritual, all in one. All one grand concord, one stupendous whole. I was standing on holy ground.

A few minutes later my mother entered the living room walking straight towards the sofa. And as I do not remember everything from childhood, this moment stands out like beacon. She asked me whether I had prayed for her telling me she had been dealing with a terrible headache all day. And now it was gone.

I had not prayed for her - I didn’t even know about the problem – I had just been grateful and awestruck by the all-goodness of God. And this truth had the effect of embracing my mother’s thought as well. This healing taught me something: Gratitude for the oneness of Life, honest reverence and consecrated praise – pure and simple –, moves us kindly and strongly beyond material sense to the spiritual perspective of being. To the good life.

It doesn’t mean to wait for good things to happen, it means learning each day better what it means to listen – in such a way that listening means yielding to true unfolding.