Somewhere deep inside I have always known that all that I have and all that I am I have received as a gift.  The world is here; it is a given.  My life and my consciousness are givens.  I think and I desire and I design and I make only by using  the material and the abilities that I have been given.  In the here and now I receive everything with me and around me and within me as a gift.  In the present I also receive my history as a gift.  But the future … that is not given; the future is up for grabs.  So the first “G” is for gift.

The second “G” is for gratitude.  Gratitude is what I naturally feel whenever I receive a gift.  When I consciously think about what I have been given this feeling arises within me.  When I sense a feeling of gratitude within my spirit—as I experience beauty or witness an act of goodness or kindness or courage—I am reminded of the abundance of the gifts.

If all that I have and all that I am is a gift, then it doesn’t really belong to me; I am free to give it all away, pass it along to someone else.  And this becomes the third “G”, generosity.  And yes, generosity involves money and possessions, but it also include time and talents, and giving such things as “credit,” “the benefit of the doubt,” “a second chance.”

Which leads me to the fourth “G,” grace, the most difficult to put into words.  Grace shows up when gratitude and generosity are so much a part of our character that they come naturally, without thought or intent.  When our first feeling is gratitude and our first response in generous, then we are living in grace.  Grace begins each moment fresh, having let go of all grudges and all judgments, all manner of debts and credits.  Grace includes others as recipients as well of wondrous gifts.  It says, “All that we have and all that we are, we have received as a gift.”  And so the tell-tale act of grace is forgiveness.

Gift, gratitude, generosity, and grace; 4G living.