“Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind.” —Lionel Hampton, American musician
Wow, we are getting close to the end of the 2012 Gratitude Challenge.
What a beautiful year this has been, sharing our gratitudes together.
While I’m not planning to doing a second year exactly the same way, I am going to be kicking off a series of Gratitude Virtual Retreats, where we will gather through the magic of the interwebs and phone lines throughout a day, in a series of short calls with gratitude themes.
Doesn’t that sound wonderful?
The first Gratitude Virtual Retreat will be on February 14th, 2013, in honor of International Self-Love Day. I promise to have details for you before the end of the year.
- I am a blessed woman and I am very grateful!
- I am grateful for a slow and quiet holiday weekend.
- I am grateful my friends indulged me and I got to carve the turkey.
- I am grateful for sappy holiday movies. Please don’t ask me why I love them, but I do.
- I am grateful for my beautiful daughter Rose and for our talks and texts and visits.
- I am grateful for movies. Saw a couple this weekend. Life of Pi was pretty wonderful.
- I am grateful for the winter garden. Just picked some greens to sauté with shiitakes.
- I am grateful for my friends. Brief visits, long visits, everything in between. I am so lucky to be so connected.
- I am grateful for Full Moon ritual last night. I got to lead a bunch of the activities, and it was hella magical. And the Baba Yaga/Vassilisa story and enactment was amazing! Way to lean into dealing with challenges.
- I am grateful for dealing with challenges, even when they’re very very very [ahem] challenging. I’m finally at a place of resolution with some very tough stuff, and I’ll be telling the uncomfortable but oh-so-necessary truth today.
- And I’m grateful for the challenges that are still unresolved, because I now feel the trust that I will find the truth and the steps necessary to express that truth. And that I don’t have be afraid.
And from some of the beautiful women who share their gratitudes with me:
Theresa says I’m thankful that Steve has made it to his first stop coming home
I’m thankful that I will have my wonderful family to celebrate Thanksgiving with
I’m thankful for beautiful weather
Belinda says I am grateful for feeling again the sense of aliveness I used to love about dancing. I had it in doing the shim-sham with everyone, and also with a couple of dances.
Kim says I am grateful for prayer.
I am grateful for the colors of fall across the Folsom skyline.
I am grateful to feel my grateful heart as I sit and feel, and listen, and breath, and settle, and rest and smile.