Chana: Guardian Angel of Gratitude

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Chana: Guardian Angel of Gratitude

Apparently I met this particular guardian when I was in Greece. I don’t remember it, but that’s what Chana has told me. That trip was not a pleasant one; I spent it with my head in a toilet bowl because people kept slipping meat into my dishes even when I asked them not to. It was three weeks from hell, and I won’t ever be going back to Greece ever again. However, it was on that trip where Chana first came to me to remind me of why I was there and how grateful I would be once the ordeal was over with (which I was). Gratitude is a lot weirder than people think; it shows up in some of the strangest moments in our lives. Most people believe it is something we do with a journal in which we list things we are thankful for. It can certainly be that, but there are also many times when it is so far removed from that experience that we don’t even notice it. That was me in Greece circa 2006.

Chana reminds us that most people approach gratitude as something in hindsight, when we look back and see worse things that could have been. Then there is the journaling list, in which, again, some items are from the past. Chana taught me that the best way to tap into gratitude’s energy is through being thankful for things we do not have yet, to “thank it forward.” Out of all the ways Chana has taught me to be grateful over the years, thanking it forward is my personal favorite. When I started going deeper with the energy of gratitude, I bought a silver pot that sits on my main altar. Inside it are rolled up and folded notes, and the occasional sticky note with things I am grateful for. Some are past energy, some are present energy, and some are future energy. Ultimately they will all become past energy, which is why gratitude is mostly hindsight. The point of using the silver pot is to remind me to put things in it and see this form of being thankful as devotion, another thing Chana taught me that helped me deepen my gratitude practice. Giving thanks means more than listing things; it also means diving deeper into the “why” and “how” of gratitude energy: Why am I grateful for this thing/person/situation/opportunity and how will it enhance my daily life? You will know Chana is near when you feel the need to expand and explore your gratitude, feeling more than surface-level thankful, feeling something deep in your heart. You can feel this type of gratitude