Gratitude - Behaving As If The God In All Life Matters.

Last night God tasted like pizza.

Each morning before I get out of bed, I think of the things I have have.

• My health

• A warm bed and a roof over my head

• Water

• Food

• My people

• My dogs

• Coffee

Not necessarily in that order, and not always that list. Sometimes there is more, or less. Some things I have obtained for myself, and some were given by others. It doesn’t matter how “I have”. What matters is that “I have” and the ultimate source is the Devine, or as some may say God.

For me, God is a placeholder name for the ultimate universal energy , love, from which we came, and we will return. I don’t personify the idea of god. Humans are limited, the God or Devine energy as I recognize it is limitless.

I don’t believe that “god made man in his image and likeness” in the sense of the physical. Rather man made god in his/her image and likeness. So we see icons and art depicting what we imagine God to look like. It gives us a context in which we can relate, albeit the limited human form. It’s visual.

So what does God sound like? Or taste, or smell, or feel like?

We need only close our eyes and be still for a moment.

In my imagination ...God smells like the sea, and sounds like the birds. That much is easy to imagine, whether I am there or not. But in this moment, or any another moment, what does God sound, taste, smell, or feel like?

God sounds like music...Sometimes Janis Joplin and other times Mozart. On a cold morning God might sound like running water, or a snowplow truck clearing roads. God also sounds like children running around preparing for school, preparing to learn about letters and numbers and how to be social. To hear what God sounds like, I need only to listen to this moment.

Last night God tasted like pizza. Why? Because on the very basic level, it is food and nourishment for my body. But there was energy that went into making the pizza. Something had to happen to the seeds that grew into grain and tomatoes, and were harvested and processed into sauce and dough, and ultimately ended up in the kitchen where my son prepared that pizza for the family. That was also, God in action.

Every morning, God is visceral in the form of coffee.

God feels like a warm puppy in my lap. God also feels like sunshine and yes, even snow all sparkly across the lawn. God feels like satisfaction, like when the house is clean, or when a bill is paid, or a goal is accomplished. God can also feel like trying to accomplish a thing... the vacuum to do the floors, or the job that creates the income to pay that bill.

Receiving a thing, a word, a deed, or an object creates a feeling of satisfaction for the recipient. Recognizing that feeling and acknowledging where it came from, the giver, completes the energetic process. This is gratitude...

Gratitude is recognizing God in all things ...

And behaving as if the God in all life matters.

Namaste'

~💚~