Tag Archives: Grace

Thank you and Amen, Day One

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I have been spending the day missing Blogtoberfest, my inspiration for publishing a blog post every day.  I am writing every day for National Novel Writing Month, but since that project is intended to be a draft of a birthday present for Eric, I can’t really share it here–the boy reads my blog.  I toyed with taking the day off, not publishing a blog post today, but after a month of doing it faithfully, I’m not ready for that just yet.

Then I was reminded of a facebook meme that runs the month of November, 30 Days of Gratitude.  There are lots of other gratitude projects and resources out there.  For example, “Zoom in on Gratitude: 30 Day Photo Challenge” (can’t wait to try that one next), and Britt Bravo has lots of ideas on her website, “Have Fun * Do Good.”  So that’s what I think I’m going to do the rest of this month.  I’ll still do Monday’s Something Good and Tuesday’s Three Truths and One Wish, but on the other days, I will offer up my gratitude.

Photo by vistamommy

Gratitude, Day One: I am grateful for practice.  To train and repeat, to come back again and again with mindful attention.  No expectations of perfection, but rather with the intention of continuing to show up, to not judge what happens as “good” or “bad,” but rather to simply keep going, to be, again and again.

I have many practices in my life: yoga, mediation, walking the dogs, and writing.  Each of them gives me the opportunity to meet and work with myself, wherever I am.  Every time I step on the mat, sit on the cushion, enter the park as I hold my two boys, or pick up my pen, I begin again.  I am rooted, centered, steady, and present, and even when I am not, I am trying.

“We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart.”
― Pema Chödrön

This baby Robin learned to fly in my backyard this spring. To learn to fly, you have to practice.

  • What do you practice?

Three Truths and One Wish

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1. Truth: You are enough and there is enough for you. Just as you are, you are basically good and wise, you are whole.  Even if you do nothing but breathe, you are worthy of love, space, belonging. You may suffer from poverty mentality, that deep belief that there will never be enough, that you have to cling to and hoard what you have, but it isn’t real.  There is enough, enough to share even.  There is no need to compare or compete.  Let go, give it all away.  Open your heart, give and receive, knowing that you are enough and there is enough.

Photo by Ganesha Balunsat

2. Truth: Gratitude brings joy, and when you are creative, you are happy. Andrea Scher on Superhero Journal posted today on her blog about gratitude, and said “I think practicing gratitude is one of the most powerful things we can do. It gives us power and joy.”  On Tiny Buddha, there’s also a recent post on gratitude’s connection to joy, “There’s More Right Than Wrong.”

I was thinking about this while I was walking the dogs this morning.  The facts of the morning were: I was tired and it was early, dark, and cold.  One way to experience that is to get grumpy, cranky, irritated, and hateful.  Another option is to recognize how utterly amazing it is to see the moon and stars, and then the sunrise, all in a single hour. To be aware of how the cold and movement wake me up, and how nice it is to be out alone in all that quiet and space. To understand how lucky I am that I can get up, that I can move, that I have these two amazing dogs that want to go with me, who will protect me from anything out there that might be scary, (all there was this morning was a fox and an owl, so nothing too bad).

And there’s the happiness that comes from creating, any active process in which you give of yourself, your love or wisdom or kindness.  That act of offering, the action and attention, returns to you as much as you ever give away. It feeds the deepest, hungriest part of you.

Photo by Mara

3. Truth: Right now, in this moment, there is no problem, everything is okay.  Ask yourself, in this moment, right now: is there a problem? I guarantee that anything you can come up with isn’t about this moment, but rather is attached to the past or the future–I have tried this many times, and I can never come up with any problem that is attached to right now that I don’t know exactly how to handle, to render it “no problem.” Everything else is completely workable. In Eckhart Tolle’s book “The Power of Now” he says “To be free of time is to be free of the psychological need of past for your identity and future for your fulfillment.”

Photo by On Being

  • Wish: I wish that we could all internalize and manifest these truths. That we would understand joy and experience happiness in this present moment, now. “Decide today that you are enough, even if you never do anything, accomplish anything or produce anything ever again. You are enough.”

  • Your turn.  Make a wish.