I taught a bodywork class tonight, and was about to say a heartfelt thank you to the students when it struck me – in an immediate way – how nothing can be left out.
A thank you to the ones in the room includes a thank you to all of existence.
It is a thank you to everyone in the room, including myself. To the host and her work to make the space available. To those who built the house. To the ones who made and those who imported the rugs. To the food we ate today and those who brought it to us. To the ones who developed this form of bodywork. To the air we breathe. To all our ancestors. To all the ancestors of everyone who contributed to us being here now, even in small and distant ways. To all the plants and animals we have eaten, to whatever they themselves have eaten, and to the ancestors of all of these plants and animals. To the soil, water, air and rocks that has made all of that life possible. To the earth as a whole, as it is now and in its past. To the universe as a whole. To the existence as a whole.
It is a thank you to all of this, exactly as it is right now, and exactly as it has been throughout the evolution of this universe and planet. (Including whatever my personality likes or dislikes.)
Nothing is left out.
Again, it may be obvious to thought, and it really has little value in an exclusive realm of thought.
But when it sinks in and becomes a lived experience, it is quite different.
In general, it can function as a question and pointer for me. When I say thank you to someone or something, what is included in that thank you? What is left out?
What happens when I inquire into those questions?
Can I allow what emerges to work on my human self? How does my human self realign and reorganize? How is it to live from this? What would be different?