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Before I started writing down my soul, I wasn’t a very grateful person. Life looked to me like a game of grab and snatch and what I couldn’t grab, someone else would snatch. I wanted that big bucket of happiness, but my eyes were somehow always focused on what was missing, not what I had.
Now, wherever I look, I see something I’m grateful for. When I step outside in the morning, I’m grateful for the Queen Palm towering over the pergola and the gurgle of the fountain and the basil in the herb box. When I walk through my living room, I smile at my rust-orange walls and at the glimmer of my mother’s crystal. When I read, I appreciate well-turned phrases and compelling stories. When I cook, I’m grateful for every sizzle, smell, and taste, and for my chopping companion—Miles Davis. And it’s not just things; I whisper thank you for ideas, conversations, and parking spaces. And when I glance at my son’s photograph—well, my cup runneth over.
When you first begin writing, you may find yourself peering pretty far down into your cup to find something to be grateful for. It isn’t that joyful things aren’t there. They’re there. You just may not be aware of them. To increase your awareness, start keeping track of your evidence. Evidence is anything that happens, anything you realize, anything that crosses your path that makes you think, hey, this might be heaven responding.
Begin by telling the Voice what you need. Ask for guidance and ask that the guidance come with a clue that it came from heaven. Then start paying attention.
When the judge ruled that I couldn’t move, I stomped onto the porch, threw my arms up and screamed, “OK, you clearly don’t want this family in Wisconsin. I don’t know why, but you don’t. But I do presume you’d like this family to eat! So here’s the deal. I will tithe ten percent of everything you send, but you’ve gotta start sending—and soon!” Two days later, the phone rang. A woman said, “You don’t know me, but my corporate counsel said I should contact you to fix our hiring problem.” By the end of the week, I had a shiny new $17,000 consulting contract. By the end of the year, I’d earned $108,000 and bought a town house. Talk about evidence.
But evidence doesn’t have to be dramatic. It can be as small as a book recommendation, a question you hear on the radio, a website you stumble upon. A woman wrote to tell me how one of my columns became her evidence. Her daughter-in-law had taken out a restraining order against her son. The woman knew this was anger not danger. The mother prayed that morning for guidance to help her daughter-in-law forgive her son and lift the order. After she prayed, she googled “bon appetit” looking for a luncheon recipe. My column that day was about how to construct a Prayer Sandwich and ended with, “Bon Appetit!” Thinking she’d found a recipe, she clicked on the column; it was exactly what she’d prayed for. She sent the column to her daughter-in-law, who called in tears an hour later to say she’d asked the court to rescind the order.
Once you start connecting the dots between your requests and heaven’s response, you’ll notice evidence everywhere. It might be tangible, like a feather in your path, a butterfly flickering by, a penny on the front step, a bloom popping through the snow, or free tickets to a concert. Or it might be intangible, like a call from an old friend, an “accidental” meeting, a valuable introduction. Whatever it is, collect your evidence and put it on a shelf. Every once in awhile, sift through your evidence and revel in how dearly you are guided and loved.
Janet Conner’s new book, "Writing Down Your Soul: How to Activate and Listen to the Extraordinary Voice Within," comes out this December from Conari Press. Learn more at http://www.writingdownyoursoul.com Janet also created Spiritual Geography, the deep soul writing system that heals the broken heart. Spiritual Geography workbooks are available through Amazon or www.spiritualgeography.com Copyright 2008 by Janet Conner janetconner@tampabay.rr.com
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