There is something for which to give thanks in every moment, and it’s not anything in particular. The particular can distract you from what is Real if you place value in the particular alone, in the separate form. If you place the value in the joy that seems to shine through any particular, however, you are not lost. The value is in the joy, and the joy can beam through anything at all.

The one thing that can never change, the one thing for which you can always give thanks no matter what seems to be happening, is the Light, and it shines behind every illusion, waiting for you to allow it through. There is your power. You can see the light or not. If you insist on evaluating a surface and treating a surface as if it is real, then you are making a decision to see an illusion instead of the light. It is always up to you. With practice and experience, you will remember that you can see that Light, you can see what is Real at any time.

In any situation in which you feel negative emotion, there is a way in which you are refusing to allow the light to shine. It is very, very easy, when you are feeling negative emotion, to believe thoughts the ego suggests about flaws in others, about how the situation you are in is unfair to you, about how you as a separate one suffer. Now that you see how ego works, how it is entirely your choice to believe the thoughts it suggests or not, you can watch dispassionately from the sidelines, clear about what is happening. When you have the commitment to see that egoic thoughts are not true, suffering as you know it falls apart. Suffering cannot hold together or have consistency when you do not believe the thoughts coming from ego. The concept of a separate you suffering cannot continue when you see very clearly that the thoughts ego is sending have never been true.

Focus on egoic thought means that your focus is on the unreal. Once you realize that you have been focusing upon the unreal, a willingness comes quite naturally to focus upon what is Real.

There is a rigidity that comes of years of habituated belief in fearful thought. First you believe that you are a separate one who can harm and be harmed. On the basis of this belief, ego sends many other fearful thoughts that you believe. Belief turns into experience. As you allow yourself to recognize that egoic thoughts have never been true, ego will send many thoughts about self-protection and staying safe. This rigidity that you feel is a brittle shell outlining the seen-as-separate self. Every stressful thought you believe depends upon the perception of separate selves and the belief that it is in your best interest to protect the self you see as your own.

The Light shines away the rigidity of the perception of seen-as-separate selves, and there is your freedom and the freedom of all. The Light will do its work of itself. It only has to be allowed. Egoic thought, if believed, is a shield you hold up to prevent the Light from assisting you and all. Now that you can see how silly it is to defend against what will help you, you can drop your defenses and wait in stillness for the blessings that belong equally to all. 

What a beautiful light show it is for us when you see how to drop your attachment to a nightmare, when you allow yourself to be showered by the Love that is always here for all. We bless you because you are a Blessing.