This post is a part of the Season of Gratitude Series. You can participate by writing a gratitude post and telling me about it. For more details, click here.

As I stepped lightly and reverently among the redwoods of the Muir Woods National Monument, this was the question I pondered. The Coast Redwood, or California Redwood as it is sometimes called, grows exclusively along the Pacific Coasts. They are over 2000 years old and grow to over 350 feet high and 20 feet wide. They are able to stay moist off the fog in the area and do not solely depend on the root system for moisture. The tannin in the redwood also makes the trees fire and insect resistant. The trees are coniferous, but also have another unique way to reproduce. When they are under stress the trees sprout burls which germinate and are ready to sprout saplings.

While these trees are extremely resilient to their climate, while they have developed a reproductive system that ensures that they survive, while they rely on a communal root system for nourishment, and even armed with inherent substances to withstand fire and insects, they are vulnerable to one thing, mankind. We have managed to dwindle the Redwood forest down to 1% of its original size.

Sure, in numbers, there are many more trees. We can continue to have wood for our decks, our homes, and our offices for this generation without worrying about the trees becoming extinct. However, can we continue to consume these trees at our current rate and still have them be around for the next 7 generations, at most 700 years?

When a Redwood takes 2000 years to grow to its magnificent height and girth, can we replace it?

If we can manage to destroy an ecosystem so indigenously resilient, what does that say about our sense of connection? I’m not one to nurture nature at my expense. However, I do see a correlation between our sense of disconnect from each other and our Selves, and our disregard for the environment in which we live.

Just for today, I will pay attention to living things around me - the trees, birds, squirrels, ants, bees, dragonflies. The living things in my environment which I take for granted. Those plants and flowers with the diverse spectrum of colors. The ones that not only enhance my aesthetic life, but also help me to survive without my interference or knowledge.

Today, I am grateful for my natural surroundings. What are you grateful for?

In Spirit,
Nneka

This post is a part of the Season of Gratitude Series. You can participate by writing a gratitude post and telling me about it. For more details, click here.

I used to have a problem with the word gratitude. First of all, it’s an old word. It always felt like something my grandmother would admonish. Not in the good-natured grandmother way, but in the obligatory sense. Second, it feels as though someone or something out there is responsible for my life. That thing feels removed from me as I am thankful to it for such and such. It has a ring of falling to your knees and beseeching that thing out there for more of its blessings. Third, it meant to me that I owed someone or something for my existence. I don’t like the feeling of being beholden.

I’ve come to view gratitude in a different light. It’s difficult to put into words, but this is a blog so here goes.

Today when I give thanks, it feels like an acknowledgment of the ties that bind. It feels like a nod to the underlying essence of life. Even when I thank another for a task done or gift given, it feels as though I’m saying, “I behold the Christ in you” or “Namaste” or “I salute the Divinity within you.” I give thanks to and for the Spirit that contains all things and expresses as everything. Quite different from feeling beholden.

This new perspective on gratitude also helped me to be more receptive. Since I no longer felt like I owed someone or something outside of me, I felt open to receive all the good things that were coming my way. I had a great demonstration of this this past week as Balanced Life Center hit an all time visitor high. I finally let my guard down and opened to the flow of Spirit and all of you showed up.

We give thanks to individuals, organizations, God, mostly from the perspective of something beyond our bounds. However, we aren’t separate from those individuals, organizations, or even God. We are saluting within ourselves the essence of our beings. When you say thank you to a friend for a listening ear, you are thanking that person, yes. They feel your sense of appreciation. However, you are also acknowledging their Spirit. The part that facilitated the heart to heart exchange. You are saying thank you for the sense of connection.

Today I give thanks for and to the Spirit of all life, the essence of all of us and of this earth. What are you grateful for?

In Spirit,
Nneka