Beyond Me

One of the blessings that comes from vacationing is that it jerks us out of our routine and the daily things we take for granted. Life is interrupted for the days or weeks we are gone and when we return we see them in new ways. At first I was worried about coming home from such a magnificent setting as Ireland. I thought maybe Utah would seem barren and dull, but instead I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the feeling of gratitude that has filled me. I’m grateful for my brown mountains and for the health that allowed me to enjoy the trip. I’m grateful for my soft bed and cozy home. I’m seeing things around me I haven’t noticed before, and I’m seeing things I have noticed before in new ways.

I love this feeling of gratitude that fills me with awe for the simple things around me, but going away and coming back has also somehow filled me with a consciousness of my relationship to God. I am aware that I am more than my body or my personality or my experience. I am God’s child and in some way that there are no words to describe I’ve a “genetic” link to Him that is as real as the links to my parents that gave me hazel eyes and long fingers. I am part divine and cultivating that divinity is what life is all about. I have been given this very moment in time to exist and if I use it to love and to serve my divinity grows—just as using a muscle makes it stronger. I am grateful both for my knowledge of that divinity and for that divinity itself.

In short, I’m brimming with the joy of gratitude today. I’m thankful to be. I’m grateful for existence. I’m so happy because I am the daughter of the King of Kings!