Blog Summit – Day 4 – Being Grateful with an Open Heart
Wow! Can you believe it, we’re already on Day 4 of the Gratitude Project Blog Summit! I’m grateful for each and every moment of this day as it brings us a little closer to the main event of the Gratitude Project (11/18)! For more information about what to expect and to register, sign up here!
There is so much to be learned from our first writer today – she’s truly one-of-a-kind! Allow me to introduce Meggan Watterson! She is the founder of REVEAL, a women’s spirituality organization that empowers women to connect to the love within them, reclaim their bodies as sacred, and become soul-led agents of change in the world. Meggan leads the REDLADIES, a REVEAL initiative, which provides REVEALers with a spiritual community. (Some break bread together, REDLADIES break dark chocolate. Smile.) She has her Maters of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School and a Masters of Divinity from Columbia University. Her work has been featured in media outlets such as The New York Times, Women’s Radio, Feminist.com, Feministing.com and StyleSubstanceSoul.com. She is currently writing her first book, REVEALYour Soul. (Hay House, 2013.) You can learn more about REVEAL by visiting www.revealconference.org. To connect with Meggan, visit her website at www.megganwatterson.com.
Being Grateful with an Open Heart
By Meggan Watterson
At first, there’s a colossal effort. Imagine. Someone has hurt you or betrayed you. Maybe even someone very close to you, the closest you’ve ever let someone in. The action is most often, a reaction. A classic- put-up your dukes, a closing down of the heart, a massive constriction. A whole lot of “Oh yeahs” and pointing fingers goes on for a while. The blame game happens. And then you arrive at the place where the reaction ends, and all that’s left is your shut-down heart, your hurt, your love for that person blocked. Derailed. You wait there wounded in an emotional train station called validation. You wait and wait wanting more than anything to be averred, to receive the absolution you are convicted your innocence deserves.
Sometimes you wait there for years. A whole lifetime. Convinced that some wrongs scale the fence of ever being forgiven. But that’s when you remember that you’ve forgotten what being ungrateful does to your own heart. You remember that no matter what anyone has done to you- no matter the depth of the wrong- it’s up to you to free up your loving. It’s up to you to open back up the magical values of your heart.
You remember that the greatest offense is having no defense. You unfold the truth inside you like a Chinese fortune written in red that states: She Who Resists Nothing Has The Power To Overcome Anything. The inner- chant starts up again, “Transformation comes from within.” You hear it resound within you, until you remember again, that nothing outside of us can keep us from living our truth, from revealing our soul. The deepest fee-u escapes you, then. You can exhale, breathe again. The blood congealed, coagulated around your heart thins with the new oxygen, starts to flow again, pump strong. Maybe even stronger than it ever has before.
Fighting heart disease has a lot less to do with bacon that most might assume. The heart is a physical organ, yes, but it’s also a state a being. Living in and from the heart is a spiritual practice. It’s an arduous effort of embodiment. Gratitude is always the key.
When you find yourself locked out of your own heart’s door. Remember. You can always be grateful. No matter what has come your way- you can thank that challenge for making you stronger. You can thank that heartbreak for allowing your love to reach where it had never been asked to go before. And yes, you miss out then on the blame game, and you skip the purgatory of awaiting redemption, awaiting external validation. You go straight to the pith of it all- the quality and capacity of your own heart to give and receive love.
But don’t ever be fooled that we’re here to do anything more or anything less. Love is all there is. So try it, if you dare. Give up dodging a slap to the soul. Give up the fear of something or someone who can break you. Be grateful. With a wide open heart. Be grateful for everything that comes your way. And watch your life transform. From the inside out. Watch how much power you have when you choose love at all costs.
