ONE MOMENT, ONE BIG LESSON IN GRATITUDE
- Deb Hallam
- Nov 13
- 7 min read
MASTER TEACHERS
Throughout human history countless masters have walked among us—Mother Mary, Yeshua, Buddha, Quan Yin, Shiva… the list is endless.
Every so often we can recognise a master in the here and now.
Because, ultimately, we are remembering that we are the masters.
How often has someone appeared exactly when you needed them, offering precisely the words you were ready to hear?
Perhaps you’ve experienced something quite intense and out the other side, in reflection, you can see how the presence of someone who was the master teacher, popped in to stir things up in order for your expansion to occur!
When have you been that master for someone else?
GRATITUDE FOR MASTER TEACHER LESSONS
Gratitude fills me when I reflect on the many masters who have crossed my path in different phases of my life. The gratitude I feel isn’t always present “in the moment”, particularly the more challenging moments. In my humanness and with curiosity I find it eventually (even if it is quite a while later). It always helps me see that all is divine, taking me on a journey of understanding and expanding.
THE IMPACTS OF GRATITUDE
Being deep in a sense of gratitude reminds me of the feelings of being in love. With the mood change that gratitude brings, all the sharp edges and bumps in life feel smoothed out. All the wonder of life feels much more prominent and the courage to navigate it all is present.
There is much to take in and ponder about the physical, psychological and spiritual impacts of holding a sense of gratitude too. Many teachers, psychologists, neurologists etc, share about the multilayered impacts of gratitude which are just so beautiful. Impacts include people being happier by increasing their focus on what they could be grateful for every day, and people being able to sleep better as a result.
Current science indicates the small and powerful part of our brain, the amygdala, is a location where the impacts of gratitude have an enormous influence in increasing our sense of wellbeing. Changes to our brain from a practice of gratitude literally enables us to experience our lives through the lens of greater joy. In my experience, there is a peace that enters when viewing and experiencing life through this lens, a contentment founded in acceptance that grows and grows.
GRATITUDE IS NOT SPIRITUAL BYPASSING
To be very clear, gratitude for a difficult situation or person, and acceptance, does not mean having a lack of boundaries, disregarding personal safety or enabling hurtful things. Or by using a false lens of rainbows and unicorns to see life as just a bunch of “grin through it” moments, and masking the truth to experiences that need to be faced to grow from.
GRATITUDE AS A GRADUAL UNFURLING
My experience with gratitude has been very much a gradual process of unfurling. One example being the relationship with my father (or lack of!). He has been one of my greatest teachers. However he came into my life as a dysregulated, traumatized and very unhealed person, not at all the father who had some mastery of their own inner peace. A master in disguise?
It took a long time for me to identify him as a teacher. Largely because my initial experiences with him were not through feelings of love and gratitude, but through feelings of fear.
Throughout my life I made conscious decisions that were the best for me with regard to him. As a result I was able to create the space to heal my own trauma and grow the capacity to see him through a lens of gratitude. My sense of healing, acceptance and forgiveness around our relationship was tested when he passed away in 2024.
It was at this pivotal moment I met the truth that I had worked through healing, acceptance and forgiveness. I could fully receive the gifts of the journey we had shared and honour the role he played in my soul expansion.
Just like all facets of our dualistic existence, the journey with gratitude is bathed in both shadow and light because both are necessary for the other to exist. Personally I live (mostly!) in gratitude for this duality. It has literally enabled me to see so much of the truth about 'why'. As I am not yet walking on water and manifesting in an instant, I am still very much on my human journey mastering this in each moment!
A MASTER OF GRATITUDE IN DISGUISE
Very recently (November 2025) a “master in disguise” taught me even more about gratitude and gave me waaaayyyyy more to reflect upon as a result of a very deep and visceral experience.
The opportunity that presented itself was ripe with potential. In reflection I was in the perfect state of mind to ‘get it’ about gratitude, finally!!! (There is a master teacher I want to acknowledge, who is in my life right now and teaches me about gratitude. All. The. Time. They too have been persistent in opening my eyes to the powerfulness of it. Because that is truly how important it is. Thank you!)
We all have many master teachers cross our path, but every so often teacher pops in, (almost by some miracle) for just ONE powerful moment, to elevate our understanding exactly when we are ready…..
Literally like the proverb “When the student is ready, the master will appear”.
On to the story…..
MEETING THE MASTER TEACHER
One evening, after retreating to my sanctuary to contemplate the day’s wonders, a small, fluffy black cat quietly arrived at my door. He was known to me, we had met before, but this time he was very persistent in getting my attention.
I’m sure his patience was tested, as it was after quite some time that I placed all that was in my immediate field of view aside and I went outside to greet him. He showered me with affection—purring fiercely, nudging my hands, then leaping onto my lap and pressing his head against me, a clear sign that he was thrilled to have my full attention, at last!
He soon curled into my lap, and for more than half an hour we took in the vista, listened to rustling leaves and birds, felt the warm breeze, inhaled the countryside aromas, and savoured the oneness of our shared moment.
All of a sudden, the gratitude I had felt for the day grew and spilled over into an enormous amount of gratitude for this adorable feline. For the way in which he had pulled me outside to enjoy his company and to revel in the beauty of the Earth after an extraordinary day of, what could only be described as magic.
In that deeper moment of gratitude, I felt my heart open with so much love and connect with his. Warmth from my heart rippled out to connect with the heart of this beautiful cat and it took my breath away. The kind of enormous love that is usually reserved for those really close to us, huge! On top of that, the full scale of this majestic being, well beyond the slight build of the body he inhabited, landed fully into my senses.
As our hearts aligned, his energy grounded mine, and I discerned being replete with the profound teachings, codes, and attunements I’d received earlier in the day. His act of love and kindness allowed me to own fully what was mine.
It was the most profound experience I have had with a master, in the guise of a cat. I will never forget our time together and his gift to me (and to you).
THE GIFT TO UNDERSTAND GRATITUDE AS A KEY
Not only did he help me personally, but I was shown by this divine master in such an unwavering way, that gratitude is the key to heart opening and conscious connection with ALL that is around us.
With hearts open we all have the potential to experience love and connection in ways that are so deeply moving and profound, in ways we are just scraping the surface of now. In my view!
HEART OPENING AND UNITY CONSCIOUSNESS
Through our innate Unity Consciousness, when the frequency of one open heart meets another, love, gifts and complimentary frequencies are shared.
In each connection we make, we are guiding each other home to our fullness.
Initially, we may not feel anything or have any awareness of when our open heart reaches another’s open heart. The depth of this teaching is in knowing that this what we have the capacity to do intentionally. In the knowing, and even more powerfully in holding an intent that you wish to connect more deeply, and it will be.
Just our beingness is extraordinary (and I have another story to write about that!). This teaching demonstrates how our intentional gratitude + love = heart coherence = awareness of unity consciousness = limitless potential.
(Cohere means, To stick or hold together in a mass that resists separation. – The American Heritage Dictionary) And wow, is this realm on a journey with resisting separation!
Zulea, you are magnificent. I’m eternally grateful for the boundless love you share. As a master teacher, I honour you by passing your wisdom onward.
What is Zulea encouraging us all to take with us into life? I would suggest it is to level up our mastery with gratitude, to really harness heart coherence and live purposefully with the desire to be fully cognitive of our innate unity consciousness.
In a session with me, I am blessed with gifts so that I am aware of and feel our heart coherence, and that allows me to deepen as a healing conduit for you. Afterwards, in the light of clarity and understanding, gratitude for a part of your journey is wholly possible. I have witnessed how empowering that is for someone to carry with them.
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