This is a book of inspiration and upliftment and of expanding the awareness. It is a book that conveys the essence of the Spirit that is in us all. It is a source of living blessings.
Whatever your religious or spiritual approach— or whether you have no approach to these things at all— this book has the power to awaken the truth in your heart.

Here is a sneak preview of John Morton’s first Book, “The Blessings Already Are”.

Manifesting the blessings is not really anything that is complicated or even difficult. Clear out what is not serving you or no longer actively being utilized. Give and share joyously. Receive graciously. Make amends. Adorn yourself first with inner beauty so the outer beauty may benefit from your best intentions. Contribute more than you take. Make each place you find yourself better than you found it. Be an abundant source of good tidings to and from God. In short, let go and let God.
—John Morton

CHAPTER 3
THE BLESSING OF GIVING AND RECEIVING

When I was a young boy, I was a very good marbles player. If you are not familiar with marbles, there are a couple of basic games that we played called chasies and pots. In chasies, usually played in a street gutter, players each had one marble to shoot. The object was to hit the other players’ marbles on your turn. If you hit the other players’ marble before they hit yours, you won. And vice versa.
In pots, a circle was drawn on a smooth, flat area of bare ground. Each player dropped an agreed-upon number of marbles inside the circle, called the pot. Then, the players would “lag” their “shooter” marble to a line, thus determining the order of play based on whose marble was closest to the lag line.
In turn, each player would place his hand on the line at the edge of the pot to shoot at marbles in the pot. Any marbles that were knocked out of the circle were kept. If a player knocked at least one marble out of the pot and the shooter “stuck” in the pot, then the player got to continue shooting as long as he could keep hitting marbles out while having his shooter stay in the pot, along the lines of a game of billiards.
The basic skills in marbles involve the ability to propel the marble accurately while taking into account the terrain and any boundaries. With pots, there were additional skills in learning how to select the right shooter in size and weight to knock the marbles out of the pot and also make it spin like a top in order to better stay in the pot. Shooters made of marble or agate rock (aggies) were especially revered and hard to come by. The more common marbles were made of glass.
When it came to playing marbles, there was always a basic decision: Are you playing for fun or for keeps? Playing for fun meant that whether you won or lost, you got all your original marbles back when the game was over. Playing for keeps meant that when the game was over, you kept the marbles that you hit or knocked out of the pot. Some players would lose most or all of their marbles. If you didn’t have marbles and needed to borrow some to play, you couldn’t play for keeps.
In the course of my marble playing, I bought a few marbles and borrowed even fewer. I just about always played for keeps. Once having played for keeps, playing for fun just wasn’t as thrilling. If you have played games for money (often referred to as gambling), then you likely know some of the attraction and risk that happen when you play for keeps. As long as you are winning more than losing, the game tends to be enjoyable. This is especially true if whoever is providing your winnings is a good sport or at least neutral.
My winnings at marbles allowed me to build marble fortunes— not just once, but twice— which I stashed in several large coffee cans and shoeboxes. Over time I became so good that besides acquiring hundreds and then thousands of marbles, I found that very few kids wanted to play with me— for obvious reasons. I may be one of the few people around who fully appreciates what it means not only to gain all my marbles but also to lose them all.
My family’s move to another city necessitated that I give away my first marble fortune. At least, that’s how I remember the situation being presented to me by my father. Despite being pressed to dispose of my marble wealth, I did learn something about the value of being able to share what I have with others. I just gave them all away to a few of my friends (whose number radically increased as the word of my largesse spread through the neighborhood). As an eight-year-old, I learned a lot about the importance of having a great deal of something that others are glad to receive.
The fate of the second fortune of marbles is much more memorable. With the considerable talent I had developed in relation to other players, I soon acquired new cans and boxes full of marbles in our new home. There were so many that I began storing some in our garage so as not to take up too much space in my room, which I shared with my brother.
Gradually, I began to lose any sense of thrill or satisfaction from creating an ever-increasing fortune of marbles. It wasn’t just the silent moaning and groaning that usually greeted me when I would appear, ready to play at a game. I got a feeling of what it must be like for bullies to walk up to those they picked on.
One day I just knew the right thing to do was to give all the marbles away. A couple of my buddies really thought I had already “lost my marbles” and urged me to sell them instead. But the more I considered the idea of just plain giving them all away, the more enthused I became. I put the word out that at a certain time one afternoon, anybody who wanted some free marbles should be at the local schoolyard.
I had accumulated so many marbles that I needed a couple of my buddies to help me carry them to the site. The word had obviously gotten out, as plenty of kids of all ages showed up. I had them back up to a distance of about 150 feet away. Yelling, “Keep whatever you find,” I began throwing handfuls of marbles. Had I been throwing diamonds, gems, and gold coins, I hardly think the response could have been any more intense. All these kids were madly scurrying after each and every marble.
Within seconds of the first throws, observing the excited and joyful responses, I could hardly remain standing as fits of laughter overcame me. There was an amazing sense of delight in freely and with abandon giving away the very things I had so intensely sought to acquire and possess for so long. It was an enormous source of laughter to see others so intently focusing on acquiring the very things I was dispossessing myself of with great relish.
Perhaps you can appreciate, as I do, the part of St. Francis’ life in which he is reputed to have gone to a tower in the home of his prosperous merchant father to throw very valuable garments and bolts of cloth to excitedly happy people on the street below, much to his father’ s horror. This incident occurred at the time of St. Francis’ spiritual emancipation and led to his dedication to live by the means of his Father in Spirit rather than the considerable means and inheritance of his physical father.
It is not too soon to consider that one day you will, as will everyone, be giving up everything you possess in this world. Do you realize that you will have the same opportunity to delight in dispossessing yourself of the materiality of this world? Would you rather make your passing a futile effort to hang on, not letting go in the slightest way? Or will you already be detached and freely letting go of all that you possess and have acquired?
Soul Transcendence, the direct awareness of our spiritual connection with the Divine, is a process of realizing the detached, nonmaterial state that is the source of our true wealth and prosperity. It is high time to practice expanding our abundance and riches as we learn to let it all go and pass it on to those who are able to receive.
Many sacred scriptures tell us that the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. It is not too smart to attach ourselves to the materiality of this world such that when the Lord gives or takes away, we are ill-prepared for either. It is our heritage to learn to freely receive and give. This is a great key to a life of ever-increasing abundance and riches. The source of the supply is unlimited, and the opportunities on the planet are more plentiful than ever.
There is always more than enough for everyone to keep playing. The Lord’s game is played for fun and for keeps. Share your wealth, that the unlimited Divine Source may replenish you evermore.

Baruch Bashan.

A BLESSING OF LIBERATION

Lord, we do ask for your blessing, extending through us as a gift.
As those who extend in your purpose to express your blessings, we ask that you visit each of us personally at this time, to work with us in our relationship to this world.
We ask that you bring your great Light that is the Holy Spirit, through the one we know as Lord of us all, to sit down with us, to visit us where we live, to look in every corner, every aspect of what we have created.
We ask this through all that has been created, that we have a balancing here and now, a lifting of what is no longer necessary, and a placement of your grace.
We claim the debts are paid, through this action of your Beloved that comes in and sits with us now, that we are the Beloved, and we do partake of these blessings, the lifting of the debt.
We claim the healing, the balancing for ourselves, for those we have entangled through unnecessary actions.
And now we claim that you are liberating us again and straightening our consciousness, so that we live according to what is true, what is your love and is unconditional to all. We set this purpose supreme, carrying it in our hearts, sanctifying our dedication, acting upon our devotion anew, putting aside our attachments and our distractions, bringing us to our wisdom that we will act true to our divine nature, that we will find the direct way you have placed before us, the clarity, the strength, and the knowledge.
We give thanks that you fill our hearts, that we affirm with our breath in each moment. We breathe in the blessings. We breathe out our gifts, our sacrifice, willingly, openly, and freely unto all. Increase us evermore, that we may expand past all limitation, finding ourselves transcending and knowing ourselves in the Soul.
We accept your patience, the patience that always endures and overcomes.
We accept your peace, the peace that is the understanding that it is done.

Baruch Bashan.

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