Gratitude is born of humanity and humility. Historically, it has been a soul quality that people deliberately developed, which as a result, sustained our personal life and society as a whole.
At its essence, gratitude is the sacred rhythm of giving and receiving, of sharing and exchange. It is how life circulates. For thousands of years, this flow has kept our species alive.
Yet today, we live in a culture that does not reward appreciation. In this go-getting world, gratitude can even sound naïve or “uncool.”
But in truth, gratitude doesn’t weaken you – it roots you.
It restores your strength and your healthy esteem.
It is, in itself, a path of awakening.
Anyone who has stargazed or read astronomy-inspired fiction knows the feeling – when your self-inflicted worries dissolve into vastness. Gratitude offers that same spaciousness within.
WHEN HUMBLE MEETS PLENTIFUL
In metaphysics, gratitude and abundance are reflections of one another.
To experience true abundance is to feel deep gratitude – and vice versa.
But sometimes, both can feel distant.
If writing a gratitude list feels forced or hollow, pause.
Soften your pace until you have the bandwidth to notice tiny moments of real satisfaction.
Notice how those moments crack your heart open, how vitality returns.
Isn’t it amazing when those tiny moments burst forth, stretching time and space into vastness, creating joyous hospitality, allowing you to receive the life force once diminished.
Notice them with all your senses and give them thanks.
Accept them as if they were physical gifts to you. This is where shift begins.
In a culture that glorifies noise and comparison, gratitude helps you tune back to your own frequency. It whispers:
“Wherever you are, offers you a unique set of resources.”
And when you truly hear that, you begin to create from sufficiency rather than scarcity, fullness instead of comparison.
GROUNDED IN CREATIVITY
Many creatives and entrepreneurs know the pressure of beginnings – the comparisons, the doubts, the fear of not being “enough.”
But being new is not a disadvantage. It is fertile soil.
It means you are still porous, curious, receptive.
You carry the freshness that others have forgotten.
That openness might be exactly what helps someone else awaken.
Don’t take that lightness for granted – it is the antidote to stagnation.
Your gratitude for where you are becomes the magnet for what’s next.
To create is to lean back into your own energy.
From here, true abundance multiplies.
Gratitude is a practice of presence. It brings you back to the rhythm of the Earth – steady, cyclical, reciprocal.
LEARN FROM THE SEASON
As I write this, the Chrysanthemum Moon is waxing. Late Summer ripens into Autumn.
My neighbour’s giant sunflower, once a golden smile through the window, now bows her heavy head. As the season is moving, her petals and leaves are now fading, head tilting, barely holding herself anymore. To me, she is just as beautiful as she was in her prime. Her petals fade, yet her presence is still radiant. I walk up to her and thank her for the joy she brought me, for the reminder that beauty doesn’t end – it transforms.
This is the wisdom of the Earth element.
To yield. To nourish. To return what has been received.
Leaves are falling according to their own schedule. But not in loss, but generosity – they are enriching the soil, providing shelter and nesting materials for wildlife, enabling the next generation to flourish.
With chlorophyll breaking down, the universal green is fading away, Nature is busy revealing her deeper layer of beauty with a colour splash.
Beyond releasing and letting go, this season invites us to mine the diamonds within.
What is calling you at the moment?
Which innate gift you want to cultivate, despite social conditioning?
May you rest well in your truth, may your insights flow with richness.
With love,
Yiye Zhang 章一叶
