“Two kinds of gratitude: The sudden kind we feel for what we take; the larger kind we feel for what we give.” —Edwin Arlington Robinson, American poet
“There is a law of gratitude, and it is . . . the natural principle that action and reaction are always equal and in opposite directions. The grateful outreaching of your mind in thankful praise to supreme intelligence is a liberation or expenditure of force. It cannot fail to reach that to which it is addressed, and the reaction is an instantaneous movement toward you.” —Wallace Wattles, American author
I have a retreat coming up this week, studying spiritual neuroscience with Rick Hanson at Esalen, and I won’t be back in time to send out the weekly Gratitude Challenge blog next week, so I’m sending you two weeks’ worth of my love and gratitude today.
Today I’m grateful for being aware of the wheel of the year.
Read about this week’s ripening/maturing/harvest energy (Equinox, Sun enters Libra, Harvest Moon next week) in today’s other blogpost here. There’s even instructions for a ritual you can do to acknowledge in a powerful and beautiful way everything that’s ripened and matured in your own life, work, health and relationships this last growing season.
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Today I’m grateful for the crisp sunshine. Even though I’m in the Bay Area, I swear I could feel Autumn in the air this morning. The air is cooler, the light is lower.
- Today I’m grateful for yoga class. It’s now about three months that I’ve been doing yoga regularly, and there’s magic in that hour on the mat.
- Today I’m grateful for all the wonderful things that combine to make me a better person. Yoga. Meditation. Dancing. Walking. Gratitude practice. Generosity. Yup. A woman like me needs lots and lots of tools and practices.
- Today I’m grateful for the garden. For observing the cycles of sprouting, growth, maturity, seeding and death. The wheel of life.
- Today I’m grateful for my gorgeous coaching clients and how they bring their open hearts and eagerness to our every interaction. This week one woman (a new client) leaned forward at the end of our Skype call and fairly shouted “I’m so excited!!”
- Today I’m grateful for my beautiful loving daughter. She brings so much joy and tender love to my life.
- Today I’m grateful for my cherished friends. I am upheld and supported by your love.
- Today I’m grateful for my AA meetings and friends. For our mutual dedication to the best possible life for each of us.
- Today I’m grateful for my reliable ten+-year-old car.
- Today I’m grateful for my upcoming journey and retreat. Road trip down the coast to Esalen, a five-day spiritual neuroscience workshop, and then a day in Monterey.
- Today I’m grateful for the circle of health practitioners in my life. My homeopath, my acupuncturist, my chi nei tsang healer and my chiropractor. I am thoroughly blessed by their skill and generosity.
- Today I’m grateful for my skills in the kitchen.
- Today I’m grateful for the women who read and acknowledge (with comments and shares) the articles and newsletters that come directly from my heart.
- Today I’m grateful to be of service, to all, yo.
- Today I’m grateful for my own business coach, who is living proof that feet can be held to the fire with love.
- Today I’m grateful to be a lifelong learner, which I understand will keep me sharp as I age.
- Today I am most especially grateful for this, my new motto: If I’m doing it, it must be sacred. This is changing everything. From bad habits (picking at my cuticles, for one) to smiling more to being as kind as possible and (maybe most importantly) leaning into what is happening with more acceptance and less resistance. Every moment of surrender to what’s happening to my physical body at this point is going to make what’s going to happen as I grow older (anything, everything) a piece of cake.
Bring it!
And here’s some of what you have had to say:
Belinda:
I am grateful that something about me may be changing. …Other people tell me that I am important to them and I am able to accept that to some degree even though I don’t understand it.
MJ:
I’m grateful that I’m in a sustainable living situation, in a sustainable relationship, and live is easy now.
Theresa:
Getting to start my week with these gratitude emails. Hearing the song “What a Wonderful World” and remembering all of the goodness in this Universe
Kim:
I am grateful that I am feeling some tolerance. The loving kindness meditation is starting to take hold.
