“As you realize your life is a gift, move into your gratitude. Find your natural willingness to give from the overflow that is your abundance and prosperity. Look for ways to honor your relationship with God. Acknowledge God as the source of wealth, abundance, prosperity, riches.”
—John Morton, DSS (from You Are the Blessings)
Something can happen when our hearts are touched in such a way that it lights us up from the inside and engages all our levels. It can take us on a journey that may have hills and valleys, and yet those very hills and valleys take on new meaning and bring forward new opportunities according to a loving we can experience as God’s love for us and our love for God.
I’m writing to share about my personal experience with this kind of journey, which began for me as a prayer for a deeper, living experience of the blessings that already are – as a “right now” day-to-day experience. It grew into a ministry in which I recognize that we are all both the receivers and the givers, because through our willingness and loving we place ourselves in that living current through which God’s blessings are flowing into manifestation. I am so grateful to our Travelers, John Morton and John-Roger, for the ever-growing gift of greater blessings that keep unfolding, and to God for all the teachings of the Travelers through the ages and the presence of living truth that flows through them. And I am grateful to Leigh Taylor-Young Morton for demonstrating so clearly for me what it is to move and act in accordance with Spirit to bring the blessings that already are into greater manifestation here.
My adventure and journey with Blessings Gatherings began on an evening in 2014, when I was at an informal meeting with Leigh to discuss an administrative project. We were sitting at her kitchen table and the conversation about whatever it was that was our task-at-hand morphed into conversation and sharing about the nature of blessings. We wondered what it might be like for a group of like-hearted folks to delve into the presence of blessings in a greater way. And this became something like a creative ball that we were tossing back and forth with growing joyful enthusiasm. To me the idea seemed to take on a life of its own until we were picturing this gathering of like-hearted/like-minded folks meeting together in a cozy home-like setting for a greater experience of blessings. It was an idea that clarified simply in the sharing back and forth in this atmosphere of joyful delight and the presence of Spirit – until Leigh spontaneously exclaimed, “I’m going to try this out!”
Leigh picked up the phone right then and began setting up the first “Blessings Gathering,” inviting about 20 people including myself to come participate in an exploratory discovery process in giving and receiving blessings. John Morton’s book, You Are The Blessings, was the guidebook and the inspiration for creating the structure. It was a hit, and Leigh followed up that first exploratory meeting with several more Blessings Gatherings in which the structure became clarified. And our Traveler, John Morton, came to one of the meetings and blessed the proceedings.
For me, it was a beautiful demonstration of how the blessings that already are come forward into greater manifestation. A few months later I found myself moving from Los Angeles, where I had lived for three decades, back to San Antonio, Texas, where I had grown up. The more I contemplated the move, the more I knew I wanted to continue being in the fellowship and the flow of the blessings in an ongoing basis, and at that point Leigh graciously handed me the Blessings Gatherings baton to run with.
I ran with it to the Austin, Texas, MSIA Community, who generously offered to be further guinea pigs for trying on and trying out the simple and still developing format for the Blessings Gatherings. Carol Beau, a dear friend and one of the MSIA Representatives there, graciously agreed to co-host the Blessings Gatherings at her home. I don’t think any of us quite expected the joyful fellowship, both sacred and delightful, that was soon a part of the meetings. At this point the Blessings Gatherings have been happening in Austin every four to six weeks for the past 5 years.
To give you a taste of what’s at the heart of Blessings Gatherings, here are some key Traveler quotes that continue to inspire them:
“When you are watching, both outwardly and inwardly, Spirit will appear to you. It may come to you as Baraka, as the awareness of the blessings in your life. . .” —John-Roger, DSS (from Divine Essence)
“When those who can manifest Baraka bring it forward into a gathering, the blessings are bestowed instantly on everyone present. . .” —John-Roger, DSS (from Divine Essence)
“There is a divine authority placed within each of us to claim the blessings through our trust and faith in the intrinsic good in everything.” —John Morton, DSS (from You Are the Blessings)
The structure of these meetings can be pictured as something like a “blessings sandwich.” The meeting begins and ends with a Blessing from John Morton. In between the two John Morton Blessings there are two rounds of group sharing. In the first round of sharing the focus is upon those things we are grateful for – the blessings that are already manifest and present in our lives. It is a way to open our hearts and enter into the loving flow of giving and receiving blessings with one another. In the second round of sharing the focus is upon asking for and/or calling forward greater blessings into manifestation. They may be blessings in areas of our personal lives, blessings for people, for communities, groups, for the world, the universe, God. These are the blessings we are open to receive, for ourselves and for others, always with the understanding that our asking is given into the Light of the Holy Spirit/God, for the Highest Good of All Concerned.
At this moment in my own journey with the blessings, there are a few key Traveler quotes that are standing out for me:
“Everything that comes to you is Baraka. It’s up to you to turn it into Baruch Bashan.”
—John-Roger, DSS
“Consider that regardless of what is reflected to you, the blessings are present. They’re active, and they’re waiting for us to activate them in full.” —John Morton, DSS
To me this is something the Blessings Gatherings are designed for. We practice working with everything that comes to us individually, as a group, and sometimes as the whole of humanity – finding and partaking of the blessings that are already present in every situation, circumstance or environment, and then doing the best we can to envision the greater manifestation of ever greater good, and giving all that we envision into God’s hands for the Highest Good of All Concerned. Doing this regularly, over time, is one of the greatest blessings in my life. It is reflected back to me daily in all the little miracles of perfect timing, in the beauty outside my window, in conversations with friends, and in knowing that every moment of change for the better, every accepting thought, every attempt to bless as God would bless, is a greater good in this eternal moment.
For more information on attending or hosting/facilitating Blessings Gatherings in your area – please contact David Whitaker at MSIA: davidwhitaker@msia.org.
Please feel free to contact me also, beth.hinman@gmail.com.
With much Light and Loving,
Beth
