Gratitude

It’s 1:00am and I should be asleep but I was rereading my journal and realize I want to share a written exercise I did  last month.

The exercise was to write 5 pages -nonstop- of gratitude.

The directions were:

1) Do not take your pen off the page except to turn the page and write some more

2) Do not think as you write

Here’s what I wrote.

You might want to grab a cup of tea because it’s a bit long (5 pages and boy did my hand hurt after writing this.  My heart and soul felt light though!)

I’m thankful for my house and the peace it brings to live within its sweet walls. ~ Thank you for the little Spanish-style nooks in the walls which fill me with such joy to look at. ~ Thank you for my amazing friends that offer love, support, kindness, and a listening ear when I’m in need. ~ Thank you for Greg who always makes nice comments about my status updates on Facebook and sends me interesting links to check out. He’s thoughtful. ~ Thank you for my cars and for the stinky smell in one of my cars as it helps remind me that my car is not me. ~ I am not stinky. ~ My car is. ~ Thank you for my business and the incredible foundation that it has brought to my life: stability and maturity. My business has been one of my biggest teachers in this life. ~ Thank you for the endless -good- ideas that flow through me. From You to me. I acknowledge that You are the Source of these good ideas and I thank you, Higher Power.

Thank you for giving me the tenacity to actually implement these ideas out in the world. ~ Thank you for Tonie, my wonderful webmistress who has done such a great job with my web edits. ~ Thank you for my coaching clients from around the country who call and who want me to help them. ~ Thank you for them writing numerous testimonials on my website as it helps me to grow my business. ~ Thank you for my hot tub which brings me such daily relaxation and joy. ~ Thank you for my camera from my ex-boyfriend and that it is such a nice camera. ~ Thank you for my computers that enable me to bring my work into the world and to connect with people. ~ Thank you for the rightness of my Mac. ~ Thank you for the deep knowing that I usually have when something is a YES. ~ Thank you for the times when I don’t know because then I have to ask for help.

Thank you for Jesus, my gardener, and his smile. ~ Thank you for his willingness to hang my Christmas lights on my house which fill me with such joy when I look at them. ~ Thank you for the peace and joy that I’m feeling during the holidays this year when sometimes in the past I’ve felt sad during this time of year. ~ Thank you for the money that comes to me – for having the highest grossing year ever in the history of my business-with ease and joy. ~ Thank you for the power of affirmation in written, spoken  and thought form. ~ Thank you for this trip that I’m about to go on. ~ For all the people that I will meet, all the experiences I will have, for helping to bring all the pieces of my life together to make it all happen. ~ Thank you for the newfound joy -instead of fear- that I’m now experiencing around this trip.~ Thank you for the all the people that are helping me: my mangers, my friends, my business support group.

Thank you that I get to have this experience as a single woman-for, by being single, I will meet a lot of people. ~ Relying on a boyfriend or someone else will not be an option. ~ Connection with strangers will be easier and more probable as a single woman. ~ Thank you for all these people that are responding to my ad to rent out my home. ~ Thank you for the right person living here and being absolutely the right fit. ~ Thank you for reminding me of all the big and little details that need to be taken care of before I leave-for putting the thought in my mind of, “Oh, I’ve got to take care of this before I leave.” ~ Thank you for all the money that is coming in to help pay for this trip and the fact that I will probably make money while I’m away! ~ Thank you for the ability to stop all of these things that I would normally pay for while I’m away: Netflix, gym, etc. ~ Thanks for the nice representative I got on the USAA line who helped me buy the insurance. ~ I feel protected by that insurance and it feels good to have finally taken care of that item that has been on my to do list for months.

Thank you for the birds that live around my house who sqawk their hellos to me and the red squirrel that often peers in my windows and shakes his tail at me in greeting. He’s so cute. ~ Thank you for my spider that lives under the porch light. ~ Thank you for the bike that I have and the joy that it gives me when I ride it. ~ Thank you for the hiking trail above my home and the sense of peace that it gives me when I go there. ~ Thank you for the joy in my heart and the love in my eyes that comes from nowhere outside of myself. ~ Thank you for the recent ability to be in love…with life. ~ To notice the beauty and be very, very present. ~ Thanks for the gorgeous choreography of that woman moving away from sitting next to me in the meeting yesterday and my feeling a bit hurt and then one of my very favorite people sitting down next to me just ten seconds later. ~ Her leaving opened up the spot for him to sit down next to me. ~ For letting people go and others popping in -better people- to take their place. ~ That experience was such a great reminder.

Thank you for my blog – one of my greatest gifts of this year- and the opportunity to to be able to write about my feelings about life. ~ To be creative in a way that doesn’t involve money, in a way that lets deep parts of my soul speak. ~ Thank you for the gift of this morning and the list of things to do and that I know I will get done with Your help and guidance. ~ Thank you for the stinky car situation getting resolved and getting unstinky–one way or another. ~ Thank you for the fact that Barb is going with me to my family holiday party and how different that will be for me-to have a piece of my home here- with me there. ~  Thank you for my Dad’s gentle heart and kindness and for us figuring out how to be close. ~ Thank you for his wife Tommie and her being in his life -their love and connection is sweet. ~ Thank you for my grandma’s house being rebuilt at a rapid pace after the fire and that she will be settled soon in her brand-new beautiful home. ~

Thank you for my lighting of daily candles in the morning and how that small ritual makes me so happy. ~ Thank you for the structure in my life and how I’m going to break out of that structure and explore life from an unstructured place for awhile. ~ Thank you that this is the last page! ~ Thank you for my knowing when to not pound open a door that is closed and locked. ~ Thank you for healing my heart. ~ Thank you for the emptiness that is in the man space in my life and that will -I’m trusting- soon be filled with a wonderful, loving, kind, right-f0r-me man. ~ Thanks for the surety that exists in my heart about that. ~ Thanks for fun plans for Christmas. ~ Thanks for the wonder of the season and how peaceful my heart and mind feel these days. ~ Thanks for my family. ~ Thanks for helping me realize that I want to give to them more–more of myself, more of what I have and be there for them more in order to deepen our connection. ~

Thank you for the sun and how it is shining and how soon my legs will be hiking. ~ Thank you for the gift of my body that is so very healthy and my eyes that can see and my ears that can hear and for my heart that feels love for others. ~ Thank you that You provide all that I need -and more! ~ Thank you that I’m done with this exercise.

Tagged as: Gratitude, Gratitude List