\u201cAs you realize your life is a gift, move into your gratitude.\u00a0 Find your natural willingness to give from the overflow that is your abundance and prosperity.\u00a0 Look for ways to honor your relationship with God.\u00a0 Acknowledge God as the source of wealth, abundance, prosperity, riches.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u2014John Morton, DSS (from You Are the Blessings<\/em>)<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0 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\u2019s love for us and our love for God.<\/p>\n I\u2019m 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 \u2013 as a \u201cright now\u201d day-to-day experience.\u00a0 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\u2019s blessings are flowing into manifestation.\u00a0 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<\/em> the teachings of the Travelers through the ages and the presence of living truth that flows through them.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 We wondered what it might be like for a group of like-hearted folks to delve into the presence<\/em> of blessings in a greater way.\u00a0 And this became something like a creative ball that we were tossing back and forth with growing joyful enthusiasm.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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, \u201cI\u2019m going to try this out!\u201d<\/p>\n Leigh picked up the phone right then and began setting up the first \u201cBlessings Gathering,\u201d inviting about 20 people including myself to come participate in an exploratory discovery process in giving and receiving blessings.\u00a0 John Morton\u2019s book, You Are The Blessings,<\/em> was the guidebook and the inspiration for creating the structure.\u00a0 It was a hit, and Leigh followed up that first exploratory meeting with several more Blessings Gatherings in which the structure became clarified.\u00a0 And our Traveler, John Morton, came to one of the meetings and blessed the proceedings.<\/p>\n For me, it was a beautiful demonstration of how the blessings that already are come forward into greater manifestation.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The more I contemplated the move, the more I knew I wanted to continue being in<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0 Carol Beau, a dear friend and one of the MSIA Representatives there, graciously agreed to co-host the Blessings Gatherings at her home.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think any of us quite expected the joyful fellowship, both sacred and delightful, that was soon a part of the meetings.\u00a0 At this point the Blessings Gatherings have been happening in Austin every four to six weeks for the past 5 years.<\/p>\n To give you a taste of what\u2019s at the heart of Blessings Gatherings, here are some key Traveler quotes that continue to inspire them:<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you are watching, both outwardly and inwardly, Spirit will appear to you.\u00a0 It may come to you as Baraka, as the awareness of the blessings in your life. . .\u201d \u2014John-Roger, DSS (from Divine Essence<\/em>)<\/p>\n \u201cWhen those who can manifest Baraka bring it forward into a gathering, the blessings are bestowed instantly on everyone present. . .\u201d \u2014John-Roger, DSS (from Divine Essence<\/em>)<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a divine authority placed within each of us to claim the blessings through our trust and faith in the intrinsic good in everything.\u201d \u2014John Morton, DSS (from You Are the Blessings<\/em>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The structure of these meetings can be pictured as something like a \u201cblessings sandwich.\u201d\u00a0 The meeting begins and ends with a Blessing from John Morton.\u00a0 In between the two John Morton Blessings there are two rounds of group sharing.\u00a0 In the first round of sharing the focus is upon those things we are grateful for \u2013 the blessings that are already manifest and present in our lives.\u00a0 It is a way to open our hearts and enter into the loving flow of giving and receiving blessings with one another.\u00a0 In the second round of sharing the focus is upon asking for and\/or calling forward greater blessings into manifestation.\u00a0 They may be blessings in areas of our personal lives, blessings for people, for communities, groups, for the world, the universe, God.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n At this moment in my own journey with the blessings, there are a few key Traveler quotes that are standing out for me:<\/p>\n \u201cEverything that comes to you is Baraka.\u00a0 It\u2019s up to you to turn it into Baruch Bashan.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014John-Roger, DSS<\/p>\n \u201cConsider that regardless of what is reflected to you, the blessings are present.\u00a0 They\u2019re active, and they\u2019re waiting for us to activate them in full.\u201d \u2014John Morton, DSS<\/p><\/blockquote>\n To me this is something the Blessings Gatherings are designed for.\u00a0 We practice working with everything that comes to us individually, as a group, and sometimes as the whole of humanity \u2013 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\u2019s hands for the Highest Good of All Concerned.\u00a0 Doing this regularly, over time, is one of the greatest blessings in my life.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n For more information on attending or hosting\/facilitating Blessings Gatherings in your area \u2013 please contact David Whitaker at MSIA: \u00a0davidwhitaker@msia.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n