Rejoice and be glad
“I like to keep my nose to the joy trail.”—Buffy Sainte-Marie
When Taz was young, before she started kindergarten, I often started our day with this game plan from Psalms 118:24. “This is the day the Lord hath made. Let us rejoice and be glad.”
Now that I think about it, this spontaneous outburst was probably the genesis of the A.A. 2.0 program that I created and wrote about in Thank and Grow Rich.
When we start our day on what Buffy Sainte-Marie calls the “joy trail,” we literally practice alchemy. When we point our lens towards all that’s going right we rearrange atoms and reconfigure every aspect of our lives.
It’s one easy thing we humans can do to move ourselves into the proximity of Truth.
Tomorrow is the day my country stops everything and devotes itself to counting blessings. But I figure, I’ll keep right on counting, the day after and the day after that.
And for those who might want a refresher course, here’s A.A. 2.0 once again:
My name is Pam G. and, as of today, I am launching a brand new chapter of A.A. Unlike Version 1.0, my A.A. stands for Amazing Awesomeness and it only has two steps.
Step #1: Admit that…..”Something amazingly awesome is going to happen to me today.” First thing every morning, before throwing off your covers, before leaping out of bed (and it doesn’t take long in this program before participants do leap out of bed with joy and expectation), before firing up the old Mr. Coffee, proclaim to the world that something unexpected, exciting and amazingly awesome is going to happen to you today. It takes what, three, four seconds? Yet it’s one of the most important things you will ever do. The first few minutes of every morning pre-paves the next 24 hours with positive expectations. It sets up a powerful intention, a forecast on which you can focus.
And it never fails to come true.
Step #2: Come to believe…..in blessings and miracles. Pretend you’re a private investigator assigned the task of finding all the beauty and largesse in the world. The dominant paradigm might suggest otherwise, but practiced with regularity, this ritual will force you to see things in a whole different way. Instead of looking for problems, be on the hunt for new blessings. Take on the mission each day of reporting back with at least three pieces of amazing awesomeness, three blessings that are different than the day before. I often liken myself to Lewis or Clark, scouting important new territory.
Because we get out of life whatever we focus on, practicing these simple two steps has the power to override and overturn the accepted paradigm.
Like Bill W.’s A.A, that has reformed the lives of millions, this new program (A.A. 2.0) can transform a “nameless squad of empty glass thinkers.”
I invite others to join me in tweeting their blessings (only rule is it has to be different each day) to my Twitter feed. Or feel free to leave your blessings here. By expecting and looking for a different, more kinder reality, we can, together in one jubilantly mighty whoop, uplift and lighten this tired old world.
Don’t you think it’s time?
#222 Forever
Pam Grout is the author of 20 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her latest book, The Course in Miracles Experiment: A Starter Kit for Rewiring Your Mind (And Therefore Your World) that has just been turned into an app. Badass ACIM (badass-acim.com)
