But how can we be thankful for what we do not see -- or will not be? So let's pause to consider the way to seeing beauty, so that we may experience fullness and joy, and be SINCERELY thankful.

Blame ego for failing to see what we have to be thankful for. As the ego sees life, it is blind -- blind to the fullness, the beauty all around. Instead of seeing what IS, it keeps busy filling Life -- or rather, replacing it -- with its conviction of emptiness. And that way, needless to say, one can't possibly enjoy the actual fullness of now, or see the beauty of it, or experience the goodness of it. Ego always obscures reality with its judgments, aversions, perversions. And that's what keeps us from being open to Reality, to Now.

Why ego sees little to be thankful for

As ego-clouded humans, we can only move from presumed emptiness to presumed emptiness, from frustration to frustration, suffering, as we go, the "lack" of Love-Beauty-Fullness NOW. Thus, we move on to the next experience -- or rather, move into it, but fail to embrace it, as WE'RE still absent, experiencing only what we think, what we believe to be the case. Even as we move from one level of evolutionary development to the next, we are still hoping, hungry, and doubtful. That way, wherever we roam, we carry hunger in our bellies -- the frustration of our soul's desiring.

Life is a starvation diet as long as we deny it. Love is no place without our embrace. As long as the ego suspects/rejects goodness and Godness, we ignore sources, and thereby continue to starve, spiritually and emotionally. Of course, feeling frustrated, we desire something else, else, else, else, else -- the search goes on! But when traveling, make no mistake, wherever ego goes, it does what it does. So, wherever we roam, if we believe what ego says, we're bound to repeat that same rejection process again and again. We would wander from emptiness to emptiness, sorrow to sorrow, rejecting life as we go. Such is the life of a lonely miner who will not see the gold.

Why Spirit sees much to be thankful for

The Spirit, by contrast, sees, accepts, and embraces. Wherever Spirit finds Itself, it sees and enjoys the fullness of now. It sees and enjoys the fullness of this place, this level. And, it sees and enjoys the fullness of the next place, the next level. Because Spirit enjoys the endless unfolding of seeing and being, the adventure of Life, the ever-newness of becoming, it has no PRESSING need to move, no DESPERATE drive to go elsewhere. Thus:

Aversion and attraction govern the ego's movement -- because of what it thinks it sees now, what it denies now, and what it hates now. If ego-mind were not so absorbed in its judgments as to overlook the fullness of now, acute frustration and hunger would not be. We CAN enjoy real openness to now, and we CAN fill with what IS, if we would only abandon egoic patterns of doubt. We CAN enjoy Life if we release negative judgment, and desist in the chronic rejection of Life and Love. It's a whole new thing, this way of being and seeing now, instead of not being and not seeing now. Why desperately seek what we need, or give up hope, when everything we want and need is given by God, and will continue to be given.

Opening to riches

Acceptance provides what seeking CAN'T provide. And this is not to say, "Never move" -- it is only to say, "Beware of doubt. Beware of denial." We need to stop moving from empty to empty, hoping to see more THEN, and be more ELSEWHERE -- when we get THERE, wherever there is. We need to be OPEN to what Is.

You see, you can't get HERE from NOT HERE. You can't get here while rejecting HERE NOW. And you can't get HERE by wanting, due to the frustration of rejecting HERE NOW, to go THERE, hoping to be here THEN. What we really need is to break that old habit of not being HERE NOW.

Now you can see why, spiritually and emotionally, the rich-get-richer: BEING HERE NOW MEANS SPIRITUAL WEALTH. When you're already present now, everywhere adds to you, you add to everywhere, and you remain full. You don't need to be grabby in attraction, or crabby in aversion, running away at the drop of a hat. Instead, you can just enjoy being here now, and being in the fullness that IS. It's all good that way. It CONTINUES to be good, and grows in goodness, from full to full.

Looking for your Self

As you know, in all this seeking, you're really looking for You. The fullness you may find here and now IS You -- It's what You are. Remember the goodness that you are at Heart: Love; Life; Passion. Such is the nature of your True Self. That is more than a mere intuition, or an intellectual knowing: you've EXPERIENCED it; so you know it to be True.

Remembering who you are, AS who you are, turn from one thing to the next with the fullness of your presence. And so continue, living and giving as You are. Don't hesitate to give your Self, to live your Selfhood. You are safe in your Reality -- The Reality. In your True Being, you're not vulnerable in the ways that ego-identified people imagine themselves to be. And nor are you essentially lacking. Such is the Life of You, your fullness, your passion.

What, then, was emptiness, despair, depression? It was passion-power turned against itself. Darkness is what happens when one takes huge power and applies it, fiercely, to the denial of Life and Self. Only tremendous passion can create deep depression -- otherwise deep depression could not exist.

When you truly see, what you see is what you know yourself to be -- now and now and now. So long as you are present now, you are aware of the Omnipresence, the ever-presence of good and God. You're moving from full to full of you, of Self-nature, of Self-Reality. Such is the ever-presence of you -- the awareness of your own true, full, and expansive nature.

TOP

Being home -- at last!

Homeness is all we seek. Homeness means BEING AT HOME -- and at the same time, BEING HOME. You ARE home, you see? Homeness is you being the Self, with the Self, in the Self. Therefore, the awareness of Self-nature is "homeness." When you're you, you're AT home, and you ARE home. You are seeing-being-offering homeness. The homeness that you see and be, in that case, is but the Reality-experience of Now.

If you bring anything of value to the party called life, what you bring to the party is You. In fact, You are the Life of the party. Indeed, if you are here, if the True Self is here, how can the party be dull or empty? And, what this party has to show you, and give to you, is also you -- because that's what the party IS: It is You. You are the Life altogether. Whenever you show up, that's what you see.

People are only bored with life because they're not here. When they are here, everything is wonderful. The truth is, when the Self is here, everything is wonderful. You find yourself in everything that appears before you. That's fulfillment, homeness.

That's all there is to fulfillment: bring your Self to the party. It's a simple matter of being here in the first place, dear one. Now you know what to do.