The way out is in. —Thich Nhat Hanh

Thank you for wind dancing with trees.

Thank you for the luxury of a hefty nap when regular sleep is disrupted.

Thank you for miracles of recovery. It may be foolish to expect them but is wise to believe in their possibility. 

Thank you for a pedestrian grooving to her headphones as she waited for the light to change on Tramway. Thank you for the gray-haired guy with a round belly sneaking an air drum riff on his walk up Spain.

Thank you for tostada night.

Thank you for dog-sitting Coco.

Thank you for boxer bounce.

Thank you for another white-winged dove sighting.

Thank you for learning to breathe.

Thank you for nothing really working when I sought to be less lonely. Then when I tried to be kinder, loneliness shrank without effort.

Thank you for the study and practice of love, leaning on historical figures, philosophers, spiritual leaders, and their traditions. How do you practice love in thoughts, speech, and actions everyday with living beings and the environment? Do you have a definition that spells out just what love means while distinguishing it from opposites? How does your love shine?

Thank you for an effort to be more honest with myself. I asked for guidance. Literally all I did was ask the empty space, the universe, to help. And it did! My hunch is that a sincere request is good for whatever ails us. It may involve a tough decision to make. Or an insecurity we’re running from. It could be as simple as “I’d like guidance to do the right thing.” (Who wouldn’t?)

Thank you for three rules for life from the “world’s happiest man.”

Thank you for how easy it is to eat healthy foods when junk food cravings (temporarily) disappear.

Thank you for song lyrics, “I’m not homeless. I’m home free.”

Thank you for natural thickeners like cornstarch, tapioca starch, flaxseeds, and chia seeds.

Thank you for the analgesic effect of Elliott Smith’s guitar playing.

Thank you for empathy. 

There’s a fear path and a love path (like Laura Lynne Jackson says).  At any crossroads, we have those options. I’m trying to practice choosing love.

Thank you for the best of our loved ones alive in our hearts. 

Thank you for understanding that when people behave in hurtful ways, it’s because they suffer (even more than the suffering they cause).

Thank you for the humility to admit our problems. Thank you for the open mindedness and courage to pursue outside help to look within.  

Thank you (again) for a tad more freedom to shed old stories of my low worth, etc. A lot of my suffering is a choice that masquerades as inevitable. Really I can let it go. Thank you for empowerment. 

Thank you for Thich Nhat Hanh explaining the word nirvana in one of his dharma talks. He said the original term described cold ashes left the morning after a fire for cooking. It surprised me that nirvana isn’t the flame. It’s when the flame is extinguished.

Thank you for everyone who meditates for peace and healing of those caught in flames. 

Thank you for a butterfly floating by a cyclist that supercharged both of our smiles.

Thank you for an autumn stay in Vermont with JL and company.

Thank you for little meditations from Plum Village that calm me to sleep. Lately I do this one:

Breathing in, I have arrived.

Breathing out, I am home.

Thank you for improvised meditations to make nice with the ickiness inside me.

Breathing in, I feel insecure.

Breathing out, I accept my insecurities.

Breathing in, I want to run. 

Breathing out, I embrace my restlessness.

Breathing in, I suffer.

Breathing out, I forgive…

Thank you for “Walk Quietly” playing on a random iTunes channel right after a walking meditation.

Thank you for an exciting hack from inter-being. An issue toward another can be addressed as an issue with myself, and vice versa. So, anger toward others magically dissipates by calming the anger toward myself. Learning to trust myself teaches me how and when to do so with you. Also, I forgive others healthily to improve at forgiving myself. I understand you to get clearer on me.

Thank you for happy waking from a dream of cuddles with my little gray beat box.

Thank you for markers of the universe’s benevolence, like truth and love—understanding, compassion, joy, kindness, equanimity…

Thank you for the shelter of trust in a greater benevolence. I hope you have it too.

Thank you for life not turning out my way. It’s something to appreciate. Personal attachments have a limited perspective, while the universe’s view is infinite. So if I go with the latter—aligning my thoughts, words, and acts with truth and kindness, regardless of outcomes—I’ll be better off.

Thank you a million times over for The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching as a salve for suffering. Reading it heals. Anger, also by Thich Nhat Hanh, has excellent practical advice to mend relationships. 

Thank you for a cognitive psychology seminar introducing me to the sunk-cost fallacy. (Maybe it fits with the Buddhist principle of [non]attachment.) Thank you for logic applied to living.

Thank you for a view of reason and intuition, mind and heart, as complementary.

Thank you for the five recollections.

Thank you for when I learn from experience.

Thank you for sobriety.

Thank you for therapy addressing mental health issues (like mine).

Thank you for allowing darkness to be our teacher. Then suffering builds solidity, sorrow feeds compassion, pain births joy, and loneliness strips us to receive connection.

Thank you for my iphone autocorrecting “losses of loved ones” into “kisses of loved ones.”

Thank you for how alive it felt to be home last month. Thank you for the opportunity to move back early, before the house is ready. Thank you for future roommates and a landlord whom I’m hopeful will become my friends, for the chance to try surfing again, to ride up and down Mulholland, to visit farmer’s markets, to garden, to live surrounded by loved ones (on two and four legs), to walk in the mountains, to advocate for the community, to enjoy sunshine and practice wellness with peeps passionate about that stuff too… Thank you for training in a wellness field. Thank you for new job prospects. Thank you for adventure that awaits.

Thank you for happiness when the focus is less on the love I get and more on the love I reflect.

Thank you for journeys out of suffering into happiness. If you are in the dark, I wish you light. If you are in the light, keep shining! <3