A Revolution of Gratitude

On the power of celebration, art-making, and giving thanks, plus some great music for you.

“When thousands and thousands of people around the earth are celebrating, singing, dancing, ecstatic, drunk with the divine, there is no possibility of any global suicide. With such festivity and with such laughter, with such sanity and health, with such naturalness and spontaneity, how can there be a war?” —Osho Zen Tarot

"If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution."— Emma Goldman
(actually a paraphrase from her writing)

It’s a (r)evolutionary act to make art.

It’s a (r)evolutionary act to express joy and wonder.

It’s a (r)evolutionary act to celebrate, dance, sing, and play.

It’s a (r)evolutionary act to care for yourself with great tenderness.

It’s a (r)evolutionary act to gather together with other soulful people.

It’s a (r)evolutionary act to give thanks.

That’s what we’re up to here at Brilliant Playground and through this Small Wonders endeavor.

Thank you for being a part of the (r)evolution.

A few months ago I wrote a post on my Creative Sparks blog about the gift of gratitude. Specifically, I wrote about doing the 28-day gratitude program outlined in Rhonda Byrne’s The Magic.

After doing the program for 28 days, I continued with the practices for a couple of months, then decided to repeat the entire program again, and now, am once again doing the continuation practices she suggests.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is utterly life-changing. So uplifting, fun, easy-to-do, and it radically changes your world view. Please go out and get yourself a copy and do it!

Do it exactly as she prescribes. You’ll need 30 minutes every morning, but it is so worth it. And yes, please do it in the morning or no later than your lunch break because it changes your whole day to start this way.

Many people have reached out to me since reading about it on my blog and told me how grateful they are to me for suggesting it.

Then, my husband starting do it. And recommended it to his patients. (He’s a holistic healer.) And they are all loving it.

It’s a revolution of gratitude.

Which got me to thinking about just how powerful that would be, if there were a world-wide revolution of gratitude.

It would melt the fear-mongering, scarcity, judgement, and competition we’ve been force-fed throughout our lives. Everyone would be so focused on what they love and appreciate and enjoy that the powers-that-be would have a very hard time getting their agendas to happen. I truly believe this.

Gratitude is a form of love and appreciation. Love is the most powerful energy on earth. Nothing comes close to it. The magnetic field of the heart has been measured to be 100 times greater than that of the brain.

So, when we do what we love and focus on what we love—when we make art, sing, dance, play, celebrate, gather with those we love, and give thanks, we create a powerful energy force like nothing else on Earth.

If you’ve been feeling scared, helpless, angry, or overwhelmed by world events, please know you have at your disposal a power to make real change.

How about beginning with a revolution of gratitude? Will you join me?

A Couple of Musical Wonders for You

I’d like to nominate this song as the theme song for Small Wonders.

Then, I thought, we don’t have to have just one theme song. Let’s collect a whole bunch of them. I have started a chat thread for Small Wonders Theme Songs. Post your suggestions here.

I have now set up chat threads for us to collect Wonderful Books, Wonderful Poems, Wonderful Art, Wonderful Music, and Wonderful Movies. Join the chat, suggest wonderful things for us all to enjoy, and find others for you to discover!

Access to the chat is a feature for paid subscribers. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber if you aren’t already, so that you can join the party and support my work. (It takes me several hours to make these posts each week.) Thank you!

Don and I went to see and hear Ballake Sissoko & Derek Gripper. Sissoko is a master of the African kora (kind of like a harp). We love African kora music. Derek Gripper is a South African classical guitarist who has transcribed kora music and style to his guitar. The duo was magical! We got their album.

Here’s a clip of them improvising:

Here’s where you can get the album, highly recommended:

From the Wonder Factory

Each year for the past three years I’ve been making a collage at the beginning of the year, not so much as a traditional vision board where you post images of what you are calling in, although my board includes elements of that, but as what I’m calling a Mood Board.

I do this process very intuitively, allowing my soul to be drawn to whichever images call to me and then arranging them. The result has been very powerful for me. Each year I have something I look at all year which seems to speak to me with just what I need. Here’s this year’s Mood Board which I made last weekend.

And now for this week’s Wonder Spark to help you cultivate more beauty, joy, wonder, and play in your life. . .