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Focus on These Three Things
I looked out and saw life in my back yard, lily pads growing over themselves, lilies in full bloom. What do I see when I look inside myself? Do You Give The Gift of Gratitude To Everyone But Yourself? What do you notice? What do you notice in others? What do you notice in…
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Float with the Flow
Flowers against my skin, dew transferred and absorbed, flowing with nature, united. Nature and My Nature I awoke before dawn. The magnificent colors of sunrise precede the actual emergence of the sun by quite a bit here. The sun languidly comes up when it is ready. Before the sun joined us I noticed…
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Three Slow Exhales with the Ocean
Each breath was slower than the one before until finally I sank into my true relaxed state. My jaw relaxed, my mind cleared, I felt fully immersed in the moment. What a gift. Three Long and Slow Exhales Sink deep into relaxation starting with three breaths. Exhaling long and slow is the key…
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Aaaaaah … Sinking into the Love
And just like that I was in paradise. With my gratitude overwhelming me I realized that finding gratitude in grief, loss, frustration, overwhelm and boredom help me to fully and humbly welcome the gift of my current surroundings. Thank You, I Accept This Gift This week I arrived in paradise. The lush jungle…
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Gratitude Sharing Amidst a Storm
We sat quietly, taking cover from the desert sun, as the meditation began a storm blew through. The Smell of Onions Unseen. A Healthy Body. The Colorful Mountains. A Safe Place. We gathered. We, who are all about gratitude, sat together. We took cover from the dry desert sun in the shade, cooled by…
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Mindful Full Moon Solstice
Mindfulness is not only a meditation technique. It is a deep noticing. It is new possibilities. It is being present. A Mindful Experience Today is a special day, both the summer solstice and a full moon on the same day. What a perfect day to talk about being present and noticing. Imagine if no one…
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Saying Goodbye with Gratitude
Oh man, the crying headache. It aches like nothing else. Pounding, pulsing, it has it’s own heart beat. Another Fucking Tragedy Here we are again. We are collectively mourning. Again. Our tears pour down our faces and we ask more of ourselves than we were meant to ask. Sometimes I wonder how I can go on.…
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Fear
In the Bathroom, On a Ballot, In My Head, Everywhere Earlier I saw yet another story about fear of transgender people in bathrooms and it got me thinking about fear. This fear is so illogical and not based in reality at all. But is fear ever about reality? Fear as a way to control and…
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How to Inspire: From “Be Happy” to “I Am Grateful for ________”
Discovering Happiness During My Mid-College Crisis Something happened to me right around the time I turned 20. I called it my mid-college crisis and even though it was during the stone ages of the internet (back in 1995) I made a website about it. I questioned everything. Who am I? What am I doing with my…
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100 Thank Yous from Judaism to Einstein
If You Said Thank You 100 Times It is Passover and as my friends shared photos of their Seder it reminded me of a Jewish teaching I heard. It calls for all Jewish people to recite 100 blessings every day. The story behind the tradition is: During the reign of Kind David, there was…
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His Words Stopped Me in My Tracks
All We Take for Granted I overslept this morning. I still have not adapted to the time change and my mornings have been challenging. I woke up at 8:30am. Jumped in the shower. Quickly threw on clothes. Got into my car and raced across town arriving with a minute to spare to my…
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Choosing to Rush Through Life
Always on to the next Thing I have been really busy lately. Working long hours. Working through the weekend. Doing one thing and then another in less time than they need to be done right. But really, how is this different then any other day and any other week? We are all SO…
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Mary Oliver, Thank You for Giving Words to My Surrender
The Power of Letting Go The concept of our true self has been a theme lately that keeps popping up in different areas of my life. Who are you underneath that mask? Who are you when you are aligned in body, mind, spirit, values, senses, action and in ways that you didn’t even…
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Hello. Thank You. You Are Beautiful.
A Way of Being For a while now I have been intrigued by this concept of Ways of Being. It is the idea of having a consciousness that is aligned with an intention but not being caught up in the actions or strategies that might get you there. For instance you could be of…
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Seeing the World with Curious Eyes
A Deep Open-Minded Noticing Right now I am sitting in a hospital room with my girlfriend. She has an undiagnosed terribly painful condition which is a cycle of nausea and extreme pain that comes in waves of abdominal spasms. She yells out in pain her face pale and red, her eyes pleading for…
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Racism and Gratitude
Thank You, Martin Luther King Today as we appreciate Martin Luther King Jr. let's take an opportunity to acknowledge our privilege. Our gratitude practice is one way we can look at the privilege we have with humility and appreciation. Instead of defending ourselves saying we don't have privilege and instead of being so…
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175 Prayers of Gratefulness and Peace
Tiny Bundles of Thanks I was at an art exhibit on Friday and had the opportunity to experience a work of art by Rhett Lynch that incorporated 175 tiny bundles made from red fabric tied with a tiny piece of string and meticulously attached to a painting, in neat rows. I was taken by my…