Waking up in the morning I smile. 

I have 24 brand new hours to live. 

I vow to live these hours deeply, 

I vow to learn to look at people around me with the eyes of compassion.

—Waking up gatha, shared by Thich Nhat Hanh

He also introduced a discussion about feeding depression and love: The Buddha said that nothing can survive without food.

Thank you for love being fed, for love growing. 

Thank you for dreams and visions of the future motivating today. 

Thank you for true messages sent from the heart.

Thank you for reflecting on all our strengths.

Thank you for when I finally understand that I’m still far from understanding.

Thank you for when we’ve helped each other to understand in the past and recently. Thank you for opportunities to do so in the future. 

Thank you for rainbows inside us waiting to bust out. 

Thank you for a song that encouraged me to let go of old stories. 

Thank you for when we try and listen to (look at?) the world like it’s a song. 

Thank you for a page in Helping People Change reminding me that if I continue to do what I’ve always done, I’ll continue to be who I’ve always been. To change, to grow, to feed love, I will do things differently.

Thank you for Thich Nhat Hanh writing in the book Anger of what a long commitment (6-8 years) it is to earn a university degree and that “perhaps there are other elements that are more important to your well-being and your happiness,” like improving relationships. He asked, “Do you have time for this?”

That spoke to me. I didn’t devote adequate time to important stuff while earning a degree and working in a related field. Society validated those long hours in academia, yet life is more meaningful than ever away from such busy-ness. Energy now aims toward being well, treating others better…

Thank you for A and J’s progress on the path of living tiny. Lives really do transform in vibrant ways.

Thank you for efforts to heal. 

Thank you for Dear Prudence, my high school sweetheart’s song for me.

Thank you for insight to see when communication is meant to gain from misunderstandings. Those who use such communication may be struggling. When we minimize the unhealthy stuff and keep practicing what we know with our hearts is healthy, when we keep looking deeply with honesty, calming our minds—persistently, diligently—we’ll find higher ground.

Thank you for when we accept our pain, because then we accept the lessons it has for us. Seeds I feel burned by and reflexively want to cast from my garden (like rejection) just take proper care to yield fruits of understanding and compassion.

Thank you for caring moms. Mine could tell I hadn’t been cooking or shopping (due to a migraine). So she batch cooked sweet potatoes. She roasted Yukon golds. And she whipped up oatmeal cookies and hummus. Thank you for her love. 

Thank you for neighbors and family there for each other after a thunderstorm caused a bit of damage at our ‘hood in the high desert.

Thank you for everyone who supports us through life.

Thank you for when I grasp that we all have the same capacities (seeds) within us. And one who hurts me is suffering too. I don’t know the whole story, either; some of my suffering may stem from imagined causes. 

Thank you for awareness that I can’t have anger for just one person. It generalizes. It carries over to me, to you. (Maybe that’s non-discrimination.) In the same way, it’s impossible to have love for just one person (not at all referring to polyamory, BTW). Love indulged in one area of life or toward one being makes its way elsewhere. Since the love we practice in a specific setting expands beyond it, I’d ideally go with that.

Thank you for strong lion hearts.

Thank you for the greater care with which I will give trust in the future. Ideally it will be earned through demonstrated integrity, openness, directness, consistency, sobriety, humility, honesty, awareness... Thank you for greater appreciation of those who are worthy of trust. Thank you for compassion for those who are less so. Thank you for self esteem building to know that I deserve safe relationships where gifts are appreciated and respect is reciprocated.

Thank you for sisters shaping us into better versions of ourselves. 

Thank you for an east coast trip in less than a month. It’s scary to think about (like with the last adventure) but exciting—especially the visits to longtime friends. Thank you for the move back to CA planned soon after the trip. Thank you for a new program starting in September that may open a career path.

Thank you for a future kitchen with big windows because meals are fun to prepare and eat in natural light.

Thank you for compostable phone cases and shoes made from corn.

Thank you for 100-year-old tortoise parents.

Thank you for every living being at Kindred Spirits Care Farm, where I’d love to visit one day.

Thank you for a gray dog with white paws on an evening stroll and a Peaches lookalike on another.

Thank you for memories of funny misunderstandings. The little girl me thought porcupine was “porky-pine,” orangutan was “orangutang,” and Haagen Dazs she pronounced “hogs and dogs.”

Thank you for the imagined smell of her perfume wafting images of Aunt Jaybird across my consciousness.

Thank you for butterfly fly-bys. While part of me knows they’re not personal, the closeness feels special. 

Thank you for the belief in the good (healthy, balanced, connected) things coming, even though I have little idea what they’ll look like anymore. I believe in them. May your belief in those good things draw more and more of them into your life <3