Gratitude, and Why What Goes Around Comes Around

No doubt you’ve heard statements similar to “what goes around comes around.” That principle seems to apply to a lot of things, and we looked at it in the context of gratitude.

We have been working on the idea of how we can energize gratitude to transform the consciousness of the planet. One of the aspects of this that revealed itself to us in the process was the idea that we get back what we put out. We knew from our own experience that this was true, however we wanted to get a handle on how to present the concept without going into explanations of holographic frames of reference and the like.

So we came up with a metaphor that we kind of liked.

To get the picture, we invite you to take a little journey in your imagination. You can either read this, have someone read it to you, or record it and play it back whenever you feel like you could use a mini-vacation. So relax and let the words create mental images that fill your awareness.

Place yourself beside a placid pool where the water lies still, calm and motionless. It is simply the way it is: unchanging, unmoving. The beautiful blue sky is reflected on its surface. It sits awaiting a single moment that will transform it. It has no expectations and is content to just be and be still.

In the midst of this stillness, a leaf from an overhanging branch falls into the pool and a circle radiates out from the point of contact. Now there are multiple reflections, not just the one.

The ripple reaches a dead branch rising out of the water. As the ripple passes, the branch dips, causing another ripple or two. These spread out reaching the first ripple and causing even more undulations in the water. The ripples reach the shore and encounter other objects in the water so they ripple back and forth, touching to each other and changing the nature of the pool from placid to a dynamic, interacting, exciting place of activity and wonder.

If there are enough ripples, they stir what was below the surface. Now we begin to see what lay hidden beneath. It was always there, however something had to happen to bring it up. It swirls and the interplay with the water is beautiful, though the water is sometimes murky and mysterious.

Overall, the surface has become chaotic, and it takes on a new beauty that is different than what it was before. The ripples seem to build and create a power and force that was unavailable before the single ripple started. It is as if the interaction of the ripples amplifies the effect creating new possibilities.

In this moment you realize that a single ripple can be all that’s necessary to move from still to dynamic, and both conditions are perfect and have their purpose.

To us, this is an analogy for our view of reality or what “is.” The pool is like the collective consciousness we all share on some level. Together we are a huge universal pool all linked together, though usually unaware of the connection.

Simply in the process of existing we have experiences that create ripples inside of us and then expand outward. With everything we feel, believe, do, and are, we cause energies to flow from us. And because we are completely interconnected to everything and everyone, these emanations from us affect others whether they or we are aware of it or not.

Perhaps you can imagine what would take place if we all started ripples of gratitude. What might that do to our pool of universal consciousness? We’d love to find out.

This article was adapted from The Letters that Moved the World, by Cori Ashley & Dr. Jason Loken. It is a book dedicated to the idea that gratitude can be used as a tool for transforming the consciousness of the planet. For more on gratitude and the book, visit www.globalshifts.org