A young woman goes out to dinner one evening with her friend to a lovely little Chinese restaurant she just discovered. This woman is feeling pretty good tonight. In fact, she’s been feeling pretty good about everything lately…even though she has yet to meet Mr. Right, and her finances are in turmoil and her job is not exactly a dream job. Even with that, she’s been able to find the good in just about everything. Perhaps it’s because this woman has been practicing proactive gratitude daily. She has also been feeling pretty good about herself lately. She’s been working with a coach to help her learn to love and accept all parts of her…and its working.
So after a satisfying meal, the waitress brings the requisite plate of fortune cookies to the table. Her friend opens hers and she gets the typical, “You will soon learn a valuable lesson.” Now it’s the woman’s turn. She opens the cookie and reads the following fortune…
“From this moment on you will have good fortune in every area of your life…you have found the key” “Wow”, she exclaim, “What a great fortune. But what does it mean by ‘I’ve found the key.’ What key? What key have I found that will unlock good fortune?” She looks and sees if there might be another fortune tucked in the cookie that might explain this. Nothing.
She eats the cookie, pays the bill and is ready to dismiss the whole thing. As they are getting up to leave, the waitress walks up to them and tells them that there is one more fortune cookie that was meant for their table. And she apologizes for forgetting it. Thinking this whole thing very odd indeed, the friend motions for the woman to open it. “What are you waiting for?” She takes the cookie, thanks the waitress and proceeds to open it. She begins to read the enclosed fortune which says…
…“The key is gratitude and self-acceptance.” “Oh, I see,” the woman says, “But I’ve been doing that. I’ve been doing both of those things, and still nothing’s working out for me. I feel better about things, but I’m still in debt, have a crappy job and I’m alone.” Her friend gently reminds her that the fortune clearly states “From this moment on.” A light now goes off in the woman’s head. “Ah, I think what the fortune is saying is that all the gratitude work and the self-worth work I’ve been doing has been sort of…cumulative, and now is the time for it to come to fruition.” The friend agrees. “Yeah, it’s like a time-delay thing. Keep doing whatever it is you’re doing.”
The woman is smiling broadly now. Feeling confident and hopeful, she opens the front door, and on the other side, just about to enter, there is an attractive man walking in. He holds the door for her. Their eyes meet…
THE END….Ah, no…THE BEGINNING
This little fable hopefully illustrates the power of practicing proactive gratitude combined with self-love and acceptance. Gratitude is an essential part of the key to manifesting our heart’s desires because it creates an energy that attracts to us synchronous events and fortuitous opportunities. But if, deep down, we don’t feel worthy of a fulfilling, high-paying career, or joy, or love, we will miss the synchronous event. We will be blind to the fortuitous opportunities. We will repel the good fortune that is waiting for us. The second part of the key is equally essential. We must learn to love and accept all parts of us, forgive ourselves and our past, and see our self as God does…perfect, whole, complete and limitless now.
Practicing proactive gratitude is explained here on the site and supported by these blog posts and the opportunity to document daily that for which you are grateful in your journal or here in the comments section or in the gratitude community on Facebook. But you must do the work. Practicing self love, forgiveness and acceptance is a process that usually requires support from a coach or an appropriate personal growth program. I offer both and there are links here in the right-hand column of this site to learn more about those.
In the meantime, search for the blessings in every area of your life…they are there; and know that you are loved, and you are worthy of a magnificent life!