The Daily G.I.F.T. from The GratiDude

So nice to meet you God! You know, you are taller than I expected. I’m not just saying that.

Have you ever tried to listen to your favorite song as if you were hearing it for the first time? Really getting into all the nuances of remembering when the song really hooked you (there’s a reason why they call that “the hook” in song writing, right Jimmy Lauderdale?), and whether it was the instrumentation or the lyrics or the beat, it’s fun to try to listen as Madonna sung, “Like a Virgin”.

I remember in 1988 when I landed in northern California and got my motorcycle and visited the redwoods for the first time.  Seeing it on TV reading about it, etc. you feel pretty prepared for the enormity of the Sequoia, but you’re not.

It’s bigger and there’s way more smells and sounds even though they’re as big as blue whales. They sway in the wind, and the canopy is mesmerizing above your head.

You can’t imagine in 360 degrees and with all your senses at once, and it is powerful to experience Awe and Wonder.

The energy is almost too much to handle when you walk into an old Growth redwood Grove for the first time, and I remember reading how the Ohlone Native tribes in the Monterey Bay were very adamant that you should never sleep deep in the redwood forest because there are so many spirits and so much energy that it just isn’t safe.

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This is equivalent in terms of the emotion to praying for the first time or having a spiritual revelation, the moment of experiencing creation on this level and feeling your energy connect with the energy of everything else in and around and connected to the ocean is a truly Godly experience.

And because no two experiences that we ever have in our life or ever the same because we are never the same and everything around us is constantly changing.

Wouldn’t it be a good idea to take this fresh new approach to everything all the time?

Understanding that our very awakening is cause for celebration, and we should applaud all of the individual moments that, stitched together through energy and breath, create our reality in our consciousness.

This is the wonder of present awareness.

Of being here now.

So that you can truly enjoy dipping your toes in the water and feeling salt spray on your face for the first time.

When we’re old and no longer able to locomote under our own volition, we will crave even the most simplest physical activities and pleasures of walking outside or feeling wet dew on our bare feet.

We mustn’t wait to no longer be able to do something to it, but instead consciously, through Present Moment Awareness, slow down time.

Whomever we are with, that is where we ARE. Whether that’s with our children and our loved ones, ore we are with coworkers or customers, even strangers on the street. We choose our attitude and we choose to appreciate the wonder of life and the generous present moment of now.

I’m here for it, and I want you to be here with me.

This isn’t woo woo. This is neuroscience, and this is the only life you have.

And as I like to folks, this is not the dress rehearsal life.

So pack a bag grab your bathing suit gas up your tank in your Yugo and head to the closest ocean and pretend like it’s the first time you’ve ever been there. 

Be joyful in your own life because it’s the only life you have and your attitude is your choice.  

Your breath brings you back to the moment, which is where your toes touch the sand and you could feel the expansion of your Attitude of Gratitude.