In a polite society we say "thank you" after we receive a gift. While that is nice, it it not exactly the way the Universe works. Many falter in the manifestation process because they believe that they do not already have what they want. After all, if you cannot see it or touch it, it is not there-right? Wrong! Everything and anything that you could possibly want or desire is all around you. It is in the form of energy-waiting to be shaped and brought into the physical world by the creative process of the mind.

Thoughts are things and all things are made of energy-physics 101. Nothing exists in the world that was not first thought about. A chair, a house, a plane, a computer, etc. are merely thoughts that have become manifest. I would go so far as to say that even you and all of the infinite manifestations of life exists because of the first thought-the prime mover-the creative consciousness behind all of existence.

When we say that we do not have something, we close the cosmic door. We are telling the Universe "I DO NOT HAVE" and the Universe grants your desire and "YOU DO NOT HAVE." It is said, "seek, and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened." Unfortunately most people think this merely means that if you seek spiritual salvation, you will find it. However, these words are a basic Law of the Universe. In essence the law says that if you seek something, you will find it. It also says that what you have found, is what you have sought. If you knock, a door will be opened, or the doors that have opened are the ones upon which you have knocked.

This puts life squarely upon your shoulders. What you have gotten is what you have sought. "But," you say, "I did not seek disease, poverty, financial lack, poverty, loneliness or general misery." Sorry, on some level you either consciously did or you unconsciously accepted these conditions because someone convinced you that is all you will ever get out of life. Someone gives you a canvass and some paints and you say, "what good is this? There is no picture on the canvass. It is blank." You are told to draw a picture and you balk because you are convinced that you are not an artist. As a result, other people use the paints to draw what they want. Now you are stuck with a picture you do not like.

Your world is the canvass and the paints are your mind seeking to create a beautiful picture. Because you are told that you cannot draw, you let others do it-you let others paint your world-create your world.

Now you sit, displeased with the picture but unwilling to change it because you are convinced that only others can paint. What does this have to do with gratitude? Because you do not feel that you can paint, you do not feel any level of thankfulness for the pictures others have drawn for you. You really wanted a picture of a beautiful house in the country but someome draws a run down apartment. Why should you be thankful, the picture is not what you want? Well, you shouldn't be thankful for something you don't want.

Only you can draw what you really desire. But, thinking your desires out of reach you fail to pick up the brushes-even though you have an endless suppy of blank canvasses. A blank canvass is all things-in potential. Literally, anything imagined can be placed upon it. The reason it is not a picture of a nice house, or a good job or a wonderful relationship is because you refuse to draw your own picture. We convince ourselves that if we do not have it, there is no use in drawing it.

The fact of the matter is that you do have whatever IT may be. The canvass is all things, merely waiting your brush stokes to make it real. When you say that you have nothing to be thankful for, you are saying that the canvass can never have the picture you desire. You close the door without even trying to open it. You see the canvass as blank, but it can be whatever you desire it to be.

Giving thanks means that you have already received something. When you give thanks to the Universe for all that you could possibly desire, you are saying that you have received all that you could possibly desire. You give form and then substance to the energy that exists everywhere and by law, these things must manifest. If you say that the picture on the canvass is a new house, it cannot be a run down apartment-the panting can only be what is put on it.

It is only hard to give thanks for what you think you do not have because that is your conditioning. You can't paint? Not true-the world you have, you have painted. When you begin to accept the fact that you are the artist of your own life, you will begin to realize that all of those blank canvasses await your secret desires to be drawn by your creative mind.

Give thanks for all that you desire. They already exist in potential-it is up to you to make them real. TELL the Universe what you want and tell the Universe you are thankful that it has given you an unlimited supply of paint. Do not close the door of life by saying no thank you. "The purpose of life is to enjoy every minute of it."