Gratitude is a quality of being. Being grateful is filling yourself with love so much that everything around you begins to appear to you as love. It is how you feel when you take the time to appreciate something. It isn’t reserved only for the times when you journal and write about all the good things in your life. However, writing can remind you of what is already here, what needs your appreciative attention, and amplify the sense of feeling grateful. Gratitude is an embodiment of living in appreciation and understanding that every little thing contributing to your life in some way, deserves your loving gaze.
And you fall in love with the life that is here in you and for you.
But how do you do that?
That question brings us to the Goddess Persephone.
Watch and listen to me tell the story of this journal and Persephone
Persephone was the beautiful daughter of the Goddess Demeter and God Zeus. She had an inner light that shone out and she was drawn to all things that emitted light. One of her favorite things was going out into the fields and inhaling the sun. Persephone adored nature and loved being among light and nectar-filled flowers.
One day, she saw an exquisitely beautiful flower in the middle of the field. She hadn’t seen this one before and so she was immediately drawn to it. As she came near the flower, she could almost smell its amazing essence—its nectar. She wanted to inhale that sense and aroma, and she desired to hold the flower in her hands, and to touch her delicate petals. She walked nearer and nearer towards the flower. Just as she was about to bring her nose down to smell it and her hand down to touch it, the ground opened up with a huge roar and she was swallowed into the darkness of the underworld, the world of the God Hades, who wanted her as much as she wanted the flower.
The world of darkness was so foreign to Persephone. She was disoriented and she couldn’t see. But she kept walking until the silence touched her being and the smell of dirt filled her nostrils. Hades desperately wanted her to like being there, but she didn’t, she couldn’t, and she wanted to get back to the sunny fields and the gorgeous smelling flowers. Hades showed Persephone a pomegranate. Bound by her curiosity, Persephone tasted one tiny pomegranate seed. The seed was juicy, delicious, and left her wanting more. When her mom finally negotiated her release, they realized that because Persephone had eaten the pomegranate seed, a part of her wanted and needed to come back to the underworld for more. The agreement between the world above and the world under was set. Persephone would spend two thirds of her time above and one third of her time under the ground.
When Persephone finally came out of the underworld when her agreed upon time was over, she was overwhelmed by the strong light, the delicious scents of flowers, the beautiful music of the birds, and the bursting colors of mother nature. It was such a contrast to the silence and the darkness of her time in the depths of the Earth, which had their own subtle music and sensation. She could really appreciate the sun and the delicious nectar of the flowers. And at the same time, she remembered the taste of the pomegranate seed in the underworld being so tender and familiar. She felt her heart get full with her experience in the underworld and her experience in the outer world. Suddenly she realized that she got to be here in this moment, with all the layers of the world open to her gaze and enjoyment. Having travelled all layers and depths of her world and her being, she was becoming the powerful Goddess she was always meant to be.
Our job in cultivating gratefulness is not just counting and relying on the nectar we find above the ground and under the sun—in our most joyful moments—but diving into all the layers, depths, and seasons of our being to discover the seeds of love, learned and earned wisdom, and the resilience that offer us their juicy fruits at every moment of our being. Our job is to own the height, width, and the depth of our being and reach for the treasures available to us at every single moment and season of our lives. We do that through forgiveness, letting go, awareness, by following our curiosity and desire, by hearing the call of the seeds as well as the flowers, and by becoming present to the life that is here in us and for us, in every depth, color, scent, and season of nectar.
The seed is just another season of the flower and the nectar. All emotions, seasons, and states of being are equally valuable and bear hidden gifts and treasures. The nectar of a flower fills up the soul with the smell and anticipation of it. You could say that Persephone desires the nectar and the nectar desires Persephone to be seen and sensed. The seeds desire Persephone to be seen, heard, understood, tasted, and loved. And a part of Persephone, without realizing it, desired the seeds long before she knew of them. She was drawn to them just as she was drawn to the nectar of the flowers. The seeds hidden in the depths of your soil – the home of your body – are waiting, longing, and desiring for you to discover them, taste them, and plant them to grow with love.
This journal is a 40-day soul journey to discover the nectar in your life, a 40-day journey of feeling great-full. With soul inquiries, you will dive deeper into what it means to be filled with the essence and the nectar of love (the stuff you are made of). You will follow the scent of the sweet nectar of the sun-drenched flowers in your outer life, just like the Goddess Persephone did, right before she was pulled into the darkness of the underworld. And you will feel the pull of the sweetness of the pomegranate seeds and let them touch your lips in the depths of your inner life, just as Persephone did in the depths of the underworld.
You will discover the nectar or the sweetness in your life in all her forms and seasons and fill your heart with love. With daily questions, you will uncover what seeds and light life is longing to share with you. You will begin to look at life through the eyes of Persephone just after she comes out of the underworld. Just like her, you will begin to deeply enjoy all layers, depths, and seasons of your being.
Persephone was not the same person when she came out of the underworld; she had a much more expanded understanding of her world and of herself. That is my wish and dream for you when you come to the end of your journey with this journal.
May your time in the outerworld as well as the underworld be pleasant.
May you know where to look to find the treasures that life, your body, and your soul have hidden for you.
May you fill your heart with so much love and delight that they radiate from you and reach everyone and everything around you in overflowing abundance.
Let’s begin!