Thank you for measuring cups and spoons. 

Thank you for the story about the three laughing monks. 

Thank you for the joy of writing with a pointy tipped pencil. 

Thank you for juicy, crisp apple bites.

Thank you for motorcycle toots.

Thank you for a Sister pep talk on an evening walk to the market for chocolate and sparkling water.

Thank you for Sister encouragement calming nerves before a presentation.

Thank you for charitable audiences. Thank you for neighbor M, who would fit in with folks at the park.

Thank you for SHM’s perspectives on life. Thank you for the joy his family brings him. Thank you for his friendship. Thank you for his teaching face yoga (smiling) to serious crowds.

Thank you to the presence accompanying our thoughts and dreams. Thank you for invisible guides.

Thank you for vibrant, hopeful inner worlds. 

Thank you for advice to self: Return again and again to positivity. Remember that’s different from denying truth. It’s an attitude toward the good and the bad. Positivity approaches apocalyptic challenges (like the climate crisis) with hope propped up by action. 

Thank you for a dad who valued thinking before talking. I’ve been realizing the importance of choosing words with care prior to voicing them. Also what to say and what to leave out deserve forethought. I’d like to be skillful in those areas.

Thank you for positive spins on not making a peep—noble silence, thunderous silence…

Thank you for the big rock candy mountains.

Thank you for reminders to let go of expectations. (That’s the ideal.)

Thank you for expectations shaping attitudes. Freedom from expectations may up gratitude for others and their gifts. 

Thank you for, “We are not here to become what we think we should be. We are here to be open to what’s possible.” - Laura Carney

Thank you for a change of scenery in a couple weeks.

Thank you for opportunities to meet new friends and reconnect with old ones.

Thank you for sleeping under the stars.

Thank you for Peaches supplying me with daily laughter. Thank you for our happy moments. They (and she) nourished compassion. I hope to remember she’s with me still. 

Thank you for all our doggy angels here on earth.

Thank you for a reminder that the beings in our life are our life. 

Thank you for a grown bison running with a baby one on the field by the road, alongside my bike and me.

Thank you for empty planters discarded on the shoulder reminding me of KG (the plant goddess).

Thank you for friends BT has made since the move to NM. 

Thank you for Sisters who practice joyfulness and carry us through challenges. 

Thank you for his and hers garden beds. 

Thank you for RP’s positive attitude. Thank you for her resilience in the face of a setback. Thank you for her wisdom in wellness. 

Thank you for women, like AV, working in male dominated fields (and vice versa).

Thank you for chilled oranges in the mornings.

Thank you for Osea scents.

Thank you for couples who seem to respect each other and enjoy one another’s company. Thank you for the high concentration of those couples at Seminole.

Thank you for L and R’s evenings relaxing in the golf cart by what used to be the lake (now it’s the meadow), the volume in their cups receding with the sun, pouring ease into a decades-long conversation that’s as fresh as the air by the meadow at sunset. (Sorry about all this cheesiness.) 

Thank you for empowering relationships.

Thank you for a chat with BW lifting my spirits. Thank you for her wellness. Thank you for Riley, Echo, and Cam getting along. 

Thank you for zen retreats. 

Thank you to James Gordon for sharing concrete ways to recover from our pasts: “I think of Gratitude and Forgiveness as subtle but strong currents that can pull us through and beyond the whirlpools of remembered rage and relentless distress that trauma may have left in its wake” - James S Gordon, MD (in a snippet from Transforming Trauma)

Here’s another one: “I know that just about everything important I’ve done in my adult life”—he mentions falling in love, caring for children, admitting to causing hurt, and exploring ways to help others—that it all “seemed at first risky and foolish, and was often enough dismissed by others as outrageous or even deluded.” But when, instead of second-guessing himself, he did the seemingly foolish thing that called him, he felt at ease.

Thank you for wisdom in foolishness.

Thank you for salt.

Thank you for strolls at dusk.

Thank you for listening to One of These Things First, marveling at how distinct sounds meld to form music.

Thank you for a life made better by the love it’s given. Thank you for taller stances in those who’ve felt appreciated. 

Thank you for when we perceive ourselves through the eyes of someone who sees good that we’re blind to.

Thank you for the good in us all.

Thank you for our restful nights and healthy days. <3