If I called your name and you were to come before Me, and I asked you how you are doing, what would you say to Me? I doubt that you would tell me your complaints. Of course, I realize that you might be speechless. Being speechless can be a good thing. Be speechless often.

Imagine that We sit knee to knee. It is your turn to speak. What words would fall from your lips?

It is not that gratitude must be expressed. It just must be felt. It is more important to feel appreciation than to say Thank you. With gratitude, you have accepted love. Accept it. Accept it.

Gratitude is not deference. It is awareness. Be grateful for awareness. Awareness opens doors. It lets you enter joy. Feel the difference in the vibration of thankfulness and the vibration of blaséness. Which one enlivens?

Gratitude is innocent. It is not a big display. It is a little awareness. Let gratefulness precede you. It need not follow. Gratitude belongs before the fact.

Gratitude is simply awareness. When you look at the sky and you note that it is blue, you say: "Sky is blue." There is nothing remarkable or extraordinary in saying that. You saw the sky, and you saw it was blue. And so it is with gratitude.

Surrender starts with an openness that We can call receptivity. Receptivity is more than a willingness. It is willingness but it is willingness freed. If willingness is an open door, with receptivity, you have already opened it and now it is always open. You have stepped over willingness. You have entered the threshold of openness that lies beyond willingness. Willingness contains a little thread of control as if you deigned to willingness. But with openness, you have passed a threshold from which you cannot return.

Do you realize that you live on Earth where birds are singing, moisture is in the air, and growing greenery rises to the sun, and each day heralds the dawning of life? What is there to be unhappy about when such a creation as this exists? My children, you are in the Garden of Eden. Lush is the universe, and there is nothing you have to do but receive. All has been given to you to wrest joy from. You do not even have to wrest joy, just be open to the possibility of it. Be open to the possibility that joy is inviting you right now to come to her. Joy has her arms out wide to receive you.

Your sense of gratitude toward Me is your awareness of My gratitude for you.

You do not have to be grateful. Gratitude is not an assignment you fulfill. As you come closer to Me, you feel more of My gratitude for Creation. You experience My gratitude and call it yours.

Of course, the closer you come to Me in your awareness, the closer I come to you in your awareness. Who is it Who seems to come closer, you or I?

Gratitude is a great tray to serve life on.

As you go through life today, will you notice the little things with gratitude in your heart? No need to wait for the big things in order to feel that surge of love in your heart named gratitude.

Let every day be a day of giving thanks. This will uplift your entire life. This one thing alone. Start from a place of appreciation, and your life will soar.

Complaining hasn't served you well. See what thankfulness does for you. Give appreciation its chance. Appreciation isn't second-best. Let appreciation be the cornerstone.

When life seems to move slowly, you want it to move faster. When it moves fast, you want it to slow down. Does this mean that you are either ahead of your life or lagging behind?

Sometimes it seems that you are either pressing on the gas or you are stepping on the brake.

Either there is too much traffic in your life or not enough.

Either you are too tall or too short, too young or too old, too serious or not serious enough, too friendly or too reclusive. When you wear a blue dress, you think you should have worn yellow, and so on. Those are your thoughts, not Mine.

"Well, dear God, holy God, God of my Heart, I am Yours. I give myself to You Who gave myself to me. When I speak to You, all pettiness leaves my heart. I cannot remember what was on my mind. With You in my heart, my mind vanishes, and there is only You, and there is only I, and We are not twain but One. I am One with You, dear God. You fill my heart with Our Oneness. I am replete.