Giving Thanks Meditation ca 1989

Amongst the strife and challenges, I am finally to the point where I can muster a bit of energy for spiritual work. I recently found a version of the following which I wrote around 1989. I am going to use it for a guide to get me started.

Giving Thanks Meditation – circa 1989
(personal names have been removed)


I start by seeing a candle flame burning steadily within the very centre of my heart. I feel the warmth of it bathing my heart and body. As I watch, it grows spilling into the rest of my body until I am diffused with Light. There is a great feeling of relief and happiness as I let the Light spread through my body. My shoulders drop; my hands are relaxed in my lap, my eyes closed. As the Light grows within me, I become surrounded by a sphere of the same Light without. With my fingertips and toes tingling with the radiating warm glow of Cosmic energy, I become a sphere of Light, moving, walking, breathing, driving, talking and sleeping within this ball of Cosmic Light.
I turn to greet the members of my family starting with my household. I reach out to each one; reaching out, our hands touch and they receive the Light which fills them until their sphere is fused with mine, so that we are encompassed within two, interlinked balls of Light. I travel on with them, two Light beings, full of joy, happiness, health, and boundless energy. Each member of our family is thus greeted and brought into the Circle of Light, travelling on to greet the next until we are one large circle of family: (List names of those included;) with luminous eyes and radiant smiles we greet each other with much hugging, exclamations of joy and kisses of love. We are full of love, joy, and peace.
As I move on, I stop by the homes of friends to leave them their sphere of Light to heal, protect, and love. Wherever we go on our daily journeys, we each carry that Light with us touching those around us, passing on the Light until our entire world becomes filled with Light, joy, and peace.
I then come back to the circle of family and bring each family pet to the centre. I see them arranged on a carpeted circle of steps, with my beloved, now-passed on (insert name) at the top. (Continue with listing as many as you wish to include.) Each of them radiates with that special unconditional love for which we all love them so much. They all glow with health and Cosmic Love within our circle of Light where we dance with joy, clasping each other’s hands in Love. Here, too, I greet with longing and peace, those humans and animals who have passed on: (list here.)
Once I have seen us join in the circle, I come back to my house and begin to see it filled with Light. I visualize a giant can filled with Light being poured out over the roof of my house, coating it as a painter coats a wall. I see this Light becoming a river flowing from my house to include the whole neighbourhood, then the town, then the state and then the continent, spreading, spreading Light to every corner, leaving no trace of the darkness of anger, fear, and hatred, the whole of our planet becomes encircled with Light, until I also see another giant can upended over our Mother Earth, spilling its contents labelled Love, Joy, and Peace into every house, hovel, building, cave, tree, rock, stream, grass, four-legged animal, winged creature and water being of our beloved home planet; dispelling all strife, disharmony, fear, and anger; bringing Peace Profound to all it touches; being spread by all it touches, just as a flowing river overflows its banks, linking all it touches with its cool, damp, life-giving force. I travel out into the Universe, light as a feather, a ball of Light energy, moving with ease, with no visible distance or time, viewing Earth from above, an Earth encircled and bathed in a bright, healing Light; truly a global village of Light beings, radiating Peace and Goodwill to the entire Universe. So mote it be!