Here is an excerpt from my book, Seven Steps to Inner Power:
“Experiencing gratitude is a simple way to connect with the love imparted to you and every idea in the universe. The direct experience of the consciousness of love is gratitude. Gratitude is the process of recognizing what is true. Gratitude is an act of awareness. Without awareness, there is no recognition of anything and, therefore, no love of anything.
I’ll give you a small example of what I mean. Once I was driving west along the highway into a magnificent sunset. The entire sky was seemingly on fire with flames amazingly bright, burning colors: purple, orange, red, yellow, blue, pink. I’d never seen so many colors in one place. Finding my vision restricted by the car windows, I pulled over and got out so I could have a full view of this incredible sunset. After a few moments I began to notice cars rushing by. Some were filled with people talking to each other, in another a man was using his car phone, in another someone was trying to read a paper while keeping one eye on the road. I was puzzled because not everyone was aware of the magnificent sight in front of them. Most people seemed distracted in one way or another.
I was reminded of the power of gratitude. The feelings I experienced with the sunset—the great peace, joy, appreciation, and love that welled up—seemed to exist only for me at that moment. Of course, this sunset offered the opportunity for wonderful feelings to everyone else driving on this road as well, but only those who were willing to acknowledge the sunset, to make a conscious recognition of its presence, would feel the impact of its beauty. That is gratitude. Gratitude is the act of recognizing an idea or a quality; and when you do so, you identify with it.”
