Circles of Gratitude

Tags

abundance, gratitude, spirituality, thankfulness

No matter how long one she been away from the house – whether it be fifteen minutes or five hours – his welcome home greeting is always the same. It is as if his heart flows immense gratitude, and I can tell by his frantic dash to the door that connects the garage to the house, that “Mom’s back!”

Last evening was no different, other than that all of us had been out for a little bit. The sun had set in the interim between when we had left the house and when we returned. After his greetings and hugs, I opened the patio door to let him out on to the deck, so he could go and burn off some energy running around the yard. There was a rush of cold air which took me by surprise, as I had forgotten how quickly the temperature drops on these winter days after the sun goes down. What a beautiful circle of warmth is our Sun, I was reminded.

Stepping out and looking up at the crystal clear night sky which had just a solitary puff of a cloud hanging low under the firmament filled with stars, I caught my breath. Every single star, every visible and yet to be discovered planet and its moons, is another magnificent circle weaving a sphere. I stood there in the cold, clearing my mind of the day’s events, expressing gratitude for the great circle that is our near and far universe.

The owls in the forest may have caught a whiff of my standing reverie, for they decided to provide some impromptu background music . A single owl started the circle of sound, and it didn’t take long for the circle to expand into a full blown forest-jam. More gratitude flowed with a smile, as the louder they sang, the faster he seemed to run around the yard under the glittering dark sky.

From the small to the big, from those close to earth to the extremely distant, the spheres and circles where we may find gratitude are omnipresent. It may be our inclination to be easily distracted by the seemingly perpetual stream of aches and pains, trials and tribulations. In challenge-filled situations, our propensity may be to contract our circle(s), when in fact we may be well served by doing exactly the opposite.

The truth is that we can actually expand and contract our circles at the same time. If we find ourselves contracting our family circle, we may decide to expand our circle of friends. If we need to contract both family and friends, we can expand our circle with nature by simply walking outside. In our spiritual practice, when we make time for yoga or meditation or silence, we may be contracting within, and yet often find ourselves expanding the love and light in our heart.

The key is to remember that all of our circles and spheres, from the microcosm of every electron with every cell of our body, to the macrocosm of distant stars and galaxies, are playgrounds for life. When we accept the invitation of life’s myriad circles with an of attitude playing with a smile, of singing with joy, to observing with the heart’s light, life fills us with her abundances.

And for life’s abundances, the twelve pound havanese puppy named “bubbles”, and I are both grateful. How about you and your circles? Where are you discovering gratitude and expressing thanks today?

Kumud

P.S. Please join our weekly gathering on twitter, where gratitude often streams in abundance – Sunday, November 24th at 9amET in #SpiritChat. Our circle is ever-welcoming of new folks. Namaste – @AjmaniK

P.P.S. This post is dedicated to my maternal aunt, who was instrumental in teaching me so much about life and its circles and spheres, as she raised me from the age of seven to twenty one. It would have been her 90th birthday today, 23 Nov 2019. Thank you, dear Mom!

Paths and Directions

Tags

career, choices, direction, path

Hi Kumud – 

  When I was in ninth grade, I filled out a form for the school counseling center with the title that approximated to “What I want to do when I grow up.” It was a one page document and I filled in What I enjoyed doing, What I felt were my gifts, What I wanted to do for recreation, and What I wanted to do for a potential career.

  I recall very little about my replies except that somewhere on the page I wrote the words “Writer”. Now being a writer is a challenging career path and I’m not sure if I would recommend that path for my children. My parents certainly didn’t recommend that path for me. I ended up in Engineering and when it didn’t work out, I transferred to a major called Communications.

  For the past 3 months, I have been looking for a new career job. My recent titles have been Project Assistant, Project Manager, and Business Analyst and I consider myself a very seasoned technical communicator. This past Monday I received a phone call and I was offered a permanent position with the same enterprise that paid me as a contractor a few months ago. The problem was that this was the second job offer within a week and I was already entertaining the other position. I was in the humbling position of having two positions “on the table”.

   The world is full of choices and paths. Late yesterday I wrote the hiring manager at the enterprise where I worked as a contractor last year and turned down her job offer. The hiring manager wished me well on my journey. I enjoyed seeing that word, “journey”. We are all on a journey. I selected a career role with a very visible government agency that I consider perfect. Maybe that journey will be 15 or more years or maybe the journey will have twists and turns before then.

   Each year I am surprised and grateful that my wife and I have enough (income) for food, shelter, and a modest bit of entertainment. While I am not fond of job transitions, it always works out. I am grateful the path led me to an incredible opportunity where I will enjoy growing and contributing in areas very closely aligned with my technical communications ability. I am grateful that I had two offers at one time and in a small way, the universe allowed me to evaluate and confirm “Yes, position A is the perfect fit”. When presented with multiple choices, we are able to confirm that a selection is not arbitrary or just good enough. And that’s what makes me thrive – trusting there is a perfect fit – and it certainly happened this time.

Best,

David Tumbarello

Today listening to Forest Birdsong 2.

David Tumbarello is a technical communicator with over 50 years in the growth industry, with 49 of those years communicative and on two feet. When he is not technically communicating, he enjoys hiking, biking, and writing. Feel free to connect with David on LinkedIn.

Spirituality at the Movies

Tags

growth, leveling up, spiritual goals, writing

Welcome to the first post in our ‘mid-week’ series of guest posts by #spiritchat members, tentatively categorized, “spiriflections”. I hope that you enjoy the author’s efforts, and maybe even contribute a comment (to encourage them) and/or contribute to this series in the future. Thank you. – Kumud

Spirituality at the Movies – by David Tumbarello

I sat in the dark theater and watched a beautiful movie about growth and strength. About battling demons, learning about sacrifice, and learning about love. The main character began the story literally and figuratively without a body. She was also soul-less. By the end of the first act, she was given a body. After battling a demon, this replacement body was destroyed and she was given a second, upgraded body. This one was more mature and she integrated with this one far better than the first. In a moment, she “leveled up”. Due to her desire to fight for justice, she acquired accessories that integrated with her body. She brought these accessories to battle and “leveled up” once more.

I sat down the other day to watch another movie, this one twelve years in the making. During those 12 years, the protagonist grows from a boy to a man. As a six year old, he rides a bike, and then as a 16 year old drives a car, and when he graduates from high school, he drives off to the university. His parents divorce, they remarry, and divorce again. He struggles with his classes and learns he is an artist. This doesn’t happen overnight. It takes 12 years for him to be okay with his art. It also takes 12 years for him to grow from boyhood into something close to being an adult.

I think about maturation versus leveling up. For me, spirituality does not fit with the model of a person leveling up. A spiritual deposit today will not increase the size of my spiritual bank account tomorrow. My deposit today, however, may contribute to my growth.

It has been said, “When you open your heart and mind up to allowing yourself to experience the doubts, tension, and discomforts associated with facing fears and making changes, you allow the possibility for real growth to occur.” Should we shy away from pain, discomfort, loss, and fear? If our mindset is growth, we should find ways to embrace these difficulties because in their purest form, they are not barrier but rather gates to growth.

I recall sitting in therapy one afternoon and the therapist and I talked about trying out new behaviors. She turned to me and said, “It’s a stretch.” She wasn’t asking that I change overnight or level up. She was asking that I consider doing something just a bit outside my comfort zone. Something that would stretch my self-care muscles. Something that would help me grow.

As I write today, I embrace my flaws, blemishes, bruises, and aches. Even with these spiritual difficulties, I aspire. Without them, how would I stretch? How would I grow? I write today to address spiritual weakness. For me, writing today is a stretch. I address weakness and with this stretch, I grow. Will I have aches? Yes. Will I stretch and grow? Absolutely.

And when you mature, when you truly grow, others around you will notice and in the right circumstances they are changed as well. You change, they change. Would you want it any other way?

– David Tumbarello (@davetumbarello)

David Tumbarello is a technical communicator with over 50 years in the growth industry, with 49 of those years communicative and on two feet. When he is not technically communicating, he enjoys hiking, biking, and writing. Feel free to connect with David on LinkedIn.

Spiritual Reflections (photo by @AjmaniK)