My Gratitudes for the week of 3/11- 3/17

"Appreciate the great people and things in your life. – Sometimes we don’t notice the things others do for us until they stop doing them.  Don’t be like that.  Be grateful for what you have, who loves you, and who cares for you.  You’ll never know how much they mean to you until the day they’re no longer beside you.  Truly appreciate those around you, and you’ll soon find many others around you.  Truly appreciate life, and you’ll find that you have more of it to live." M & A Hack

                                                                     

I've been thinking a lot lately of all the people I need to thank. I'd gotten into the practice within this past year where I was sending thank you letters and notes to people for kind gestures, things done, or just for the fact that they had added to my day, and therefore my life--- by whatever acts of generosity or kindness they had displayed. This ranged from a thank you to my dad, for doing something for me I didn't ask him to do, to the girl at Walmart, who went out of her way to explain a photo program feature I didn't know about, on a photo editing program we both used. Well beyond the "requirements" of her job. I was inspired to do this by reading a book called 365 Thank Yous. (To find out more about this wonderful book, as well as a link and review, click on the Gratitude In Books tab).

Unfortunately, I've allowed myself to fall away from the practice and it's eating at me. So it's time for me to commit my list to paper, the list that is in my head mentally, of all I know deserve to be thanked and acknowledged, and start writing those thanks you. I have a lot of people in my life to thank!

My Gratitudes for the week of 3/05- 3/10

Recognize My Work in your daily life. Gradually a feeling of wonder, 

certainty, gratitude- then joy, will follow."

 

This week from Sunday on  through Sunday really was an amazing week. I posted last Sunday's Gratitudes a little early and next Sunday's gratitude will be included for next week's posting. But let me just say there that it was my Birthday Week. This was special for me NOT just because it was my birthday, but because of what my birthday usually means for me. I've never been hung up on the number issue. It's way more complicated then that. Of course it is, because complicated is my middle name don't you know? Seriously I made some major break throughs this year and I am so grateful for not only being able to have them, but because I made them on my own without any help AND, because of the huge difference it made in my life. In the past, before, my birthday was embedded in conflict and pain for me. It would usually start the week before my birthday and all of this angst was felt by me and affected those around me. But not this year. This year was joyful, calm, peaceful, happy and did I say joyful?? Truly. It was the best birthday of my life. I had a truly blessed day and week and I am, indeed, so grateful for that.

 

My Gratitudes for the week of 2/26 - 3/04

Saying thank you is more than good manners.  It is good spirituality.  

~Alfred Painter  

 

It was a TOUGH week. Full of lots of negative energy and emotion. I know I'm supposedly not supposed to feel those things but I have to admit. I am grateful that I did. It was hard and painful to go through it and feel them so strongly. But now that I have and faced it, I know it was a cleansing process that needed to be done. I am also grateful for the way that it was handled by those I shared such deep, intense emotions with. I was uplifted, encouraged, supported and explained to with patience and love. How can I NOT appreciate such gifts. I am so truly, truly blessed. I want to take a moment to really express my gratitude personally to some specific people who helped me this week through this. Elaine Wilson, Holli Bailey and Brooke Butler (for their continued love, devotion, and loyalty), My Therapist (for the letter connecting the dots), Melissa Rae (for her reading and subsequent beautiful and touching letter) and Loyd (for his mini reading),  and surprisingly, my husband. I let him have it like you wouldn't believe... he responded with resolve and a determination to take what was dished out and then did his best to respond to my needs. It couldn't have been easy. My deepest gratitude for it all and the lessons and help I received from you. 

 

My Gratitudes for the week of 2/20 - 2/26

 "In ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich."   ~Dietrich Bonhoeff

 
This was an interesting week with a mix of really good and grateful feelings, some major break throughs, and realization of manifestations. Yes plural. Just like my word processor doesn't like the word "gratitudes", it doesn't seem to like the plural of "throughs". I think I'll keep it just the same anyway.

It seems I am moving forward more then I realize. There is continued growth in my life but continued setbacks in the progress of my health and getting any real help. I will continue to be grateful for the things that I have in my life and hope that the things I need and want will come to pass and to my life as well. It's hard NOT to worry about how I am going to take care of myself, somehow get back on disability to pay for bills, myself and my daughter and to be able to manage the pain in my life. These doors keep closing on me. The medical community as a whole continues to turn their back on me and let me down. Fighting against this discouragement and frustration is not easy. I have lessons to still learn in all of this is all I can gather.

But for those things that come to me, even the smallest things I am taking delight and find joy in my heart. Whether a new book or realizing a manifestation of a television program I had been wanting to be able to see. I am grateful.

You might notice here that the date says the 21st again. I forgot to change the date on here so it should say the 22nd. I noticed it too late after I had taken the picture and erased it all. Ah well.

Sarah's 21st Birthday.

My Gratitudes for the week of 1/30 - 2/19

Gratitude is the sign of noble souls. — Aesop (620-550 BC), Androcles

I had a rough couple of weeks, and this is my greatest challenge. To be able to stay in an attitude of gratitude when I don't feel well, my pain level is up, when I feel down or feel little to no hope--- when everywhere I look is a road block. It was actually this blog that made me even more accountable. Knowing that I had created it and I wanted back up by action, and not just words, my gratitude to remember my blessings. Even if it is just one thing that I am being able to express gratitude for that day or moment in time. The exercise of doing so focuses the brain on what is good and right in your life and not on what is wrong.

My girlfriend Holli made a point to write on my Gratitude Board, even though it had been completely erased, but had not been retitled yet. :) I love that I have such wonderful people in my life that not only is supporting my effort to do this in my life but are participating in it.

My Gratitudes for the week of 1/22 - 1/29

     Saying thank you is more than good manners.  It is good spirituality.    ~Alfred Painter  

 

Another week on this earth is completed and I have had much to be grateful for as usual. Despite the things that have come up, that I have had to deal with or that have frustrated me. Focusing on those things that are wonderful in my life have helped me keep things in perspective. There were a couple of days that were a little harder for me to feel this way. This was not because I didn't feel grateful, only that when my pain level goes up-  it affects my moods, my mentality and my over-all feeling of well being, (basically I don't feel good, so my well-being feeling goes down the toilet). This is a constant struggle for me to over come. It is, in fact, part of why I started my gratitude board. As a visual reminder right on the fridge to make me see what I have in my life already. To force me to think about it and write it down. Not hidden somewhere in a journal that I may or may not remember to write in. But right out there for everyone to see.

In sharing mine, I hope that it inspires you and helps you as well, to remember how much you have in your life. I am, of course, grateful that you have taken time out of your life to spend it reading my blog.
--Thank you.