We think so much in black and white, either/or. What happens when we let ourselves live in shades of gray?
When we divide along lines, those divisions only create more division. Finding connection between each other, each breath can create more connection too. Connection can swell like a wave.
Last weekend, I was by the sea in Marblehead. The sky and the sea were all shades of gray, shifting, darkening, brightening. There were so many beautiful shades of gray or silver to connect in, to find gratitude in. I invite you into this place and into the gray:
I invite you to feel the cool mist and smell the salty brine in the air. Hear the gulls wheeling overhead, laughing with you as you move out of the division and into connection, as you move into the gray.
Do you resist gray? I’ve talked before about your rainbow body. Against the vibrancy of all that color, gray gray can feel dull. Can you find the beauty in the variation of the different swirling shades of gray and silver? Can you find gratitude even in the gray?
If it is hard for you to feel gratitude, maybe it’s because you connect it with another black and white. Have you been told to feel gratitude instead of grief, sadness, or hardship. In reality we can feel both, we can find gratitude even in hard times. Our gratitude can help us through those times.
Gratitude grows when we tend it. Think of it as giving a wilting plant water. Imagine the plant going from droopy to perky. This meditation practice is a way to tend to your gratitude.
If you want to move into a life of gratitude and abundance, picture yourself there, embracing shades of gray. Picture the rising sun and expect the reality of your new future to happen. Imagine it. If you don’t let your imagination run free, you are resisting change.
The shoreline changes each day as the tides shift, as the water wears at the shore. You are changing each day. Each tide is different. Each sunrise, a new sunrise; each day a new beginning. That change may bring discomfort. You can try to avoid it, or you can jump right into the shock of the cold water. Let change wash over you. Feel alive!
Change can come in a single moment. Sometimes it is dramatic and sometimes it is a shift. What has shifted for you in reading this? What shifted for you with the meditation?
Please share this meditation. We could all use more gratitude and accepting and noticing
shades of gray.