Love Notes for Life - Beauty

By Anne Round

Published The Magic Happens Magazine May 2021

Image by Anne Round

I am sur­rounded by Beauty every day if I can lis­ten and see the hand of God at play. To­day was sun­shine sparkling off the ocean. A stiff breeze, crest­ing the waves into white horses. A flock of seag­ulls tak­ing to the air si­mul­ta­ne­ously, dip­ping and glid­ing with play­ful ease. The heron, ex­tend­ing its mas­sive wings to skim along the edge of the shore. These mo­ments of mag­nif­i­cence are heart­felt con­nec­tions with the di­vine that we are and are em­bed­ded in.

Life is a con­ver­sa­tion with the Uni­verse of Love. It is talk­ing to God, what­ever you un­der­stand God to be, a di­vine in­tel­li­gence, source, all that is. Prayer is a con­ver­sa­tional ex­change, a blend­ing of en­er­gies with the Uni­verse. It is com­mu­nion with our soul essence. It is a dance of ap­pre­ci­a­tion, won­der, and grat­i­tude for the mys­tery that life is. It is a lover speak­ing to their beloved. It is pre­cious and pow­er­ful. It cre­ates a feel­ing of be­long­ing and be­ing part of so much more. Over my life, prayer has be­come my every mo­ment. I am con­nected to and in con­ver­sa­tion with my in­tu­itive guid­ance sys­tem, my in­ner GPS, at all times. I am lis­ten­ing and pay­ing at­ten­tion to what is oc­cur­ring around me phys­i­cally, emo­tion­ally, men­tally, and en­er­get­i­cally. Prayer is the con­ver­sa­tion that keeps me plugged in and be­long­ing. It is hap­pen­ing when I wake, as I walk and when I am in­ter­act­ing with an­other. It is a lifestyle of aware­ness and grat­i­tude.

The sim­plest prayer is “Thank you.” These two words spo­ken with a true feel­ing of be­ing grate­ful for what­ever is oc­cur­ring are a pow­er­ful state­ment. The mes­sage is sent forth into the ethers “I ap­pre­ci­ate what has just oc­curred. I felt it and res­o­nant with it. I align with this fre­quency. Thank you.” While dri­ving, when a light stays green, I of­ten smile and speak out loud “Thank you.” I am grate­ful to re­main in the flow of pro­gress­ing along my route. It is a sim­ple ex­am­ple that has the power to raise my en­ergy, move me into a place of feel­ing I am for­tu­nate and blessed. Some­how, I am mak­ing my own luck with this sim­ple, fun prac­tice be­cause I am plac­ing my­self in align­ment with the flow of life. If I am stopped by a red light, I take a breath and cen­ter my­self. I col­lect my­self in prepa­ra­tion to re­turn to flow. I move through life with aware­ness and ac­cep­tance.

Prayers of grat­i­tude help us to see the good in our lives and the world. An at­ti­tude of grat­i­tude forms by re­view­ing a few mo­ments from our day that we are thank­ful for and ap­pre­ci­ate. This can be paus­ing be­fore sleep and think­ing about these mo­ments, shar­ing them out loud with an­other, or make it a list in a jour­nal. This ac­knowl­edg­ment moves you into en­er­getic res­o­nance with ac­cept­ing more of these good things into your life. It wires your brain to see the cup of life as full.

Cre­at­ing Love in Mo­tion:

Let’s take a grat­i­tude pause. Stop, drop into your belly with a cou­ple of deep breaths. Look around, iden­tify three things you are grate­ful for in your im­me­di­ate area. Let the aware­ness of how these three things serve you set­tle into your be­ing. Smile and say “Thank you” out loud.

May grat­i­tude bring awe into your life.